Antenna switching arrangement
AssigneeRF Controls, LLC
InventorsGraham P. Bloy, Matthew E. Pierce, Christopher Gordon Gervase Turner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An antenna switching arrangement with a quadrature arrangement of transmission lines through which a desired signal path may be configured via switches selectively grounding junctions of the switching arrangement. The desired path routing a signal from an input port to one or both of first and second output ports to generate a signal with vertical linear polarization, horizontal linear polarization or circular polarization. The selected polarization may be changed as desired and/or multiple antenna switching arrangements applied to enable simultaneous signals with different polarizations.
Claims22
An antenna switching arrangement, comprising:
- an input port coupled via a fourth transmission line to a fourth junction of a quadrature arrangement of quadrature transmission lines also provided with a first, a second and a third junction;
- the first junction provided with a first switch operable to selectively couple the first junction to ground;
- the second junction provided with a second switch operable to selectively couple the second junction to ground;
- the third junction provided with a third switch operable to selectively couple the third junction to ground;
- the first junction coupled via a first transmission line to a first output port;
- the second junction coupled via a second transmission line to a second output port;
- a terminating junction coupled via a third transmission line to the third junction;
- a fourth switch operable to selectively couple the terminating junction to ground;
- and
- a resistor coupled between the terminating junction and ground.
A method for switching the polarity of an RF signal, comprising the steps of:
- coupling the RF signal to an input port of a quadrature transmission line arrangement having a first output and a second output;
- setting a plurality of switches of the quadrature transmission line arrangement to select a desired signal path between the first output, the second output and simultaneously to the first output and the second output.
A method for reading an RFID tag, comprising the steps of:
- broadcasting a signal with a first polarity;
- recording a first response signal;
- broadcasting a signal with a second polarity;
- recording a second response signal;
- comparing the first response signal with the second response signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.