EP-4738613-A1 - SIGNAL TRANSMITTING APPARATUS, ELECTRONIC DEVICE, AND COMMUNICATION BASE STATION

EP4738613A1EP 4738613 A1EP4738613 A1EP 4738613A1EP-4738613-A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application relate to the technical field of wireless communications, and provided thereby are signal transmitting apparatus, an electronic device, and a communication base station, which are used to reduce costs and power consumption. The signal transmitting apparatus comprises a first functional device, a second functional device, and a filling structure. The first functional device comprises at least one feed source. The feed source is used for transmitting an electromagnetic signal. The second functional device comprises a plurality of transmission units. Each transmission unit is used for changing a physical state of the electromagnetic signal traversing the transmission unit. The physical state of the electromagnetic signal comprises one or more of the following: amplitude, phase, polarization direction, and frequency. The second functional device is at least partially opposite to the first functional device. The filling structure is located between the first functional device and the second functional device. Dielectric constants of at least two positions in the filling structure are different.

Inventors

YANG, JUN
CHEN, YIJIAN

Assignees

ZTE Corporation

Dates

Publication Date: 20260506
Application Date: 20240208

Claims (20)

A signal transmitting apparatus, wherein the signal transmitting apparatus comprises: a first functional device comprising at least one feed, the at least one feed being configured to transmit an electromagnetic signal; a second functional device comprising multiple transmission units, the multiple transmission units being configured to change a physical state of the electromagnetic signal passing through the multiple transmission units, and the physical state of the electromagnetic signal comprising one or more of the following: amplitude, phase, polarization direction, and frequency, wherein the second functional device and the first functional device at least partially face each other; and a filling structure, located between the first functional device and the second functional device, wherein at least two locations in the filling structure have different dielectric constants.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a dielectric constant of the filling structure changes linearly in a first direction; and the first functional device, the filling structure, and the second functional device are arranged in a second direction, and an angle range between the first direction and the second direction is from 0° to 90° .
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the dielectric constant of the filling structure meets the following relationship: f x y z = 1 + a 1 x − x 0 + b 1 y − y 0 + c 1 z − z 0 × ε , wherein, f ( x, y, z ) is a dielectric constant of a point whose coordinate position is ( x, y, z ) in the filling structure, a 1 , b 1 , and c 1 , are coefficients and are not 0 at the same time, ε is a preset dielectric constant on a reference coordinate point ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) .
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a dielectric constant of the filling structure changes non-linearly in a first direction; and the first functional device, the filling structure, and the second functional device are arranged in a second direction, an angle range between the first direction and the second direction is from 0° to 90° .
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the dielectric constant of the filling structure meets the following relationship: f x y z = 1 + a 2 x − x 0 n + b 2 y − y 0 n + c 2 z − z 0 n × ε ; wherein, f ( x, y, z ) is a dielectric constant of a point whose coordinate position is ( x, y, z ) in the filling structure, a 2 , b 2 , and c 2 are coefficients and are not 0 at the same time, ε is a preset dielectric constant on a reference coordinate point ( x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ), n ≥2, and n is integer.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filling structure comprises multiple filling medium layers stacked in sequence along a first direction, and two adjacent filling medium layers have different dielectric constants; and the first functional device, the filling structure, and the second functional device are arranged in a second direction, an angle range between the first direction and the second direction is from 0° to 90° .
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein dielectric constants at all locations in a filling medium layer are the same.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein two adjacent filling medium layers are in contact, and a contact surface of the two adjacent filling medium layers are planar or curved.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filling structure comprises: a fixed medium layer; and multiple first microstructures located in the fixed medium layer; wherein a size of a first microstructure is less than a wavelength of the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the signal transmitting apparatus, and a dielectric constant of the first microstructure is different from a dielectric constant of the fixed medium layer.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a distance between two adjacent first microstructures is less than the wavelength of the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the signal transmitting apparatus.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the multiple first microstructures are periodically arranged.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a shape of a first microstructure comprises a sphere shape, a cube shape, a cuboid shape, a tetrahedron shape, or a cylinder shape.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 12, wherein: when the shape of the first microstructure is the sphere shape, a size of the first microstructure is a diameter of the first microstructure; when the shape of the first microstructure is the cube shape, the cuboid shape, or the tetrahedron shape, the size of the first microstructure comprises at least one of multiple side lengths of the first microstructure; or when the shape of the first microstructure is the cylinder shape, the size of the first microstructure is at least one of a diameter and a length of the first microstructure.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 12, wherein when the shape of the first microstructure is the cylinder shape, a diameter of the first microstructure is less than the wavelength of the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the signal transmitting apparatus, and/or a length of the first microstructure is less than the wavelength of the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the signal transmitting apparatus.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the first functional device, the filling structure, and the second functional device are arranged in a second direction; and wherein an axis of the first microstructure is parallel to or disposed at an acute angle to the second direction.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to any one of claim 1 to claim 15, wherein there is a gap between the filling structure and the first functional device, and/or there is a gap between the filling structure and the second functional device.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filling structure comprises multiple second microstructures, and a size of a second microstructure is less than a wavelength of the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the signal transmitting apparatus; wherein the multiple second microstructures are connected to the first functional device, or the multiple second microstructures are connected to the second functional device.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the signal transmitting apparatus further comprises: a signal processing module, configured to generate a first electromagnetic signal; and a feed selection module, one end coupled to the signal processing module, and the other end coupled to the multiple feeds; wherein the feed selection module is configured to select at least one target feed from the multiple feeds, so that the at least one target feed transmits the first electromagnetic signal.
The signal transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the multiple feeds are further configured to receive electromagnetic signals.
An electronic apparatus, wherein the electronic apparatus comprises: the signal transmitting apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 19.

Description

The present application claims a priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310827434.8, filed on July 06, 2023, the entire content of which is incorporated into the present application by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular to a signal transmitting apparatus, an electronic apparatus, and a communication base station. BACKGROUND Because high-frequency band wireless communication has the advantages of larger communication bandwidth and higher communication system capacity, wireless communication technologies are gradually developed to high frequency bands. However, high frequency bands correspond to smaller electromagnetic wavelengths. This means that corresponding components are smaller and have higher design requirements, resulting in higher costs and power consumption. In addition, current communication base stations generally use phased arrays as transmitting antennas to transmit wireless signals. The functions of the phased arrays depend on the structures such as phase shifters, amplifiers, switch matrices, and radio-frequency (RF) chains. With the development of antennas on a super-large scale, the scale of structures such as phase shifters, amplifiers, switch matrices, and RF chains also increases, which further increases costs and power consumption. SUMMARY The purpose of embodiments of the present application is to provide a signal transmitting apparatus, an electronic apparatus, and a communication base station, for reducing costs and power consumption. To achieve the above purpose, embodiments of the present application provide the following technical solutions. In a first aspect, a signal transmitting apparatus is provided, and the signal transmitting apparatus includes: a first functional device, a second functional device, and a filling structure. The first functional device includes at least one feed. The feed is used to transmit an electromagnetic signal. The second functional device includes multiple transmission units. The transmission units are used to change physical state of the electromagnetic signal passing through the transmission units. The physical state of the electromagnetic signal includes one or more of the following: amplitude, phase, polarization direction, and frequency. The second functional device and the first functional device at least partially face each other. The filling structure is located between the first functional device and the second functional device. At least two positions in the filling structure have different dielectric constants. In a second aspect, an electronic apparatus is provided, and the electronic apparatus includes: the signal transmitting apparatus according to the first aspect. In a third aspect, a communication base station is provided, and the communication base station includes: the signal transmitting apparatus according to the first aspect. In the signal transmitting apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present application, by setting the first functional device and the second functional device partially facing to each other, setting the at least one feed in the first functional device for transmitting the electromagnetic signal, and setting the multiple transmission units in the second functional device to change the physical state of the electromagnetic signal passing through the multiple transmission units, different feeds can be selected to transmit the electromagnetic signals, and the transmission units can be used to manipulate the electromagnetic signals to form directional beams with different exit angles. That is, in the embodiments of the present application, the first functional device and the second functional device can be used to replace RF chain and phase shifter with more complicated structure. In this way, the structure of the signal transmitting apparatus can be simplified to make the apparatus smaller, and costs and power consumption of the signal transmitting apparatus can be reduced. Even if antennas are developed on a super-large scale, costs and power consumption can be also greatly reduced. In addition, in the embodiments of the present application, the filling structure is set between the first functional device and the second functional device, and dielectric constants of at least two locations in the filling structure are different, so that the electromagnetic signal transmitted by the feed can be better focused on the second functional device to further reduce power consumption and costs, and more channels can be constructed between the first functional device and the second functional device, thereby increasing channel complexity, enhancing beam adjustment capability of the signal transmitting apparatus, and further simplifying the structure of the signal transmitting apparatus. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS To describe the technical solutions in the present application more clearly, the following briefly