Dual-polarization, omni-directional antenna system

Abstract

An antenna system comprising a vertical monopole antenna coupled to a first feed on a ground plane conductor and a dipole antenna comprising a plurality of horizontal dipole antenna elements coupled to a corresponding plurality of feeds on the ground plane conductor, the plurality of dipole antenna elements being disposed about the first feed. The vertical monopole antenna comprises a plurality of monopole antenna elements, the plurality of monopole antenna elements and the plurality of dipole antenna elements being alternately radially disposed about the first feed. With such arrangement, the plurality of vertical monopole elements produce a vertically polarized beam having a predetermined (such as omni-directional) radiation pattern about the first feed, and the plurality of horizontal dipole antenna elements produce a horizontally polarized beam having a predetermined (such as omni-directional) beam pattern about the first feed; that is, the antennas are provided with substantially coincident phase centers. The monopole antenna elements do not substantially adversely affect (i.e. shadow) the omni-directional beam pattern produced by dipole antenna elements, and the dipole antenna elements do not substantially adversely affect the omni-directional beam pattern produced by the monopole antenna elements. Thus, the vertically polarized antenna elements may be disposed in close proximity to the horizontally polarized antenna elements, with no substantial degradation of the omni-directional beam patterns of either antenna, thereby allowing the total size of the antenna system to be reduced.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.