Analysis of phased array antenna system via spherical harmonics decomposition

In traditional aerospace telemetry receiving systems, parabolic directional antenna or flat array antenna is generally adopted in the ground telemetry receiving antenna. The antenna array is synthesized into a fixed beam, tracking the target by mechanical scanning. When tracking multi-target is required, it is necessary to deploy multiple ground telemetry antennas to track their respective targets, i.e. one set of antennas tracks one target. Phased arrays antenna is an antenna system and technology developed on the basis of array antenna. Its antenna elements are synthesized into multiple independent beams, which can track one target at the same time, or track each target separately with different beams, so as to achieve the multi-target telemetry and tracking receiving function with a set of phased array antenna. The antenna array element is synthesized into multiple independent beams. This paper mainly discusses an implementation method of multi-target telemetry receiving antenna based on phased arrays technology.

Phased array radar systems are used for a wide variety of applications including the precise tracking of airborne craft for air traffic control and providing accurate atmospheric condition information important in weather forecasting. Reducing the cost and size of these radar systems will open new fields to the use of this technology. Using phase control implemented through liquid crystal materials we have created a compact, phased array radar system operating in the microwave range. We report on the construction and testing of a linear, eight element phased array antenna system operating at 32 GHz with element phase controlled by a dual frequency nematic liquid crystal media used as a tunable dielectric. The system was designed using CST Design Studios and Ansys HFSS software. Dual frequency liquid crystals are used to improve beam steering response times. We demonstrate 42 millisecond beam switching times, defined as the time to change the beam focus from one point to another point, controllable beam formation, and beam steering profiles consistent with analytical results and simulation models. The device footprint is a square with sides 9.5 cm long and a thickness less than 2.5 mm. Such a module is easily stackable to create an 8 × 8 phased array system. Our design incorporates a modular construction using PCB for the antennas and input circuitry and a liquid crystal phase control cell with microwave glass substrates. This design simplifies design, construction, and testing as compared to on-glass designs. The device shows an improvement in point-to-point scanning speeds by a factor of 3 as compared to similar liquid crystal based devices and provides continuously variable tuning. Such a device can be used in a system for reduced visibility, directional range finding suitable for automobile collision avoidance systems and rotary wing aircraft landing aids.

In array antennas, sometimes the desired radiation pattern cannot be obtained due to coupling between element antennas, reflections from the surroundings, or amplitude and phase error of the power supply circuits or failures. In these cases, it is necessary to regenerate the desired radiation pattern by estimating the excitation amplitude and phase of the array antennas. Among methods of estimation of the excitation amplitude and phase, the rotation element field vector method of element antennas is used for the phased array antenna with variable phase shifters, and the planar near-field measurement method is used for the array antennas with no variable phase shifters. The former is limited to phased array antennas, and the latter requires a large-scale scanner for the measurement and results in increased measurement time with larger-scale array antennas. In this paper, we propose a method of estimation of excitation amplitude and phase using the radiation pattern of array element antennas and the measured radiation pattern of the array antennas. Two methods are proposed here; the first method of estimation is the least-squares method using the electrical field as the measured radiation pattern, and the second is the repeating calculation method using the electrical power as the measured radiation pattern. We describe here the principle and experimental results when the first method is used, and the principle and the effectiveness of selection of the initial value for the second method is confirmed by numerical results. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 83(9): 102–110, 2000

Beam-steering antennas are the ideal solution for a variety of system applications, it is most commonly achieved through using phased arrays, where phase shifters are used to control the relative of the main-beam. In this paper, a low-cost directive beam-steering phased array (DBS-PA) antenna using switched line phase shifters is demonstrated. The proposed DBS-PA antenna has four micro-strip patch antennas, three power dividers and four phase shifters printed on the same Rogers RT-Durroid substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.2 with dimensions of 8 × 3.5 cm. The phased array antenna has a directivity of 15 dBi and the main beam direction can be switched between the angles of ±30 degrees with a 3dB beam-width of 25 degrees. All design and simulations have been carried out using Agilent AdS and Ansoft HFSS software tools. The frequency considered for the operation is 10 GHz.

A circular array antenna is used to generate radiation modes which correspond to the modes associated with Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) theory. Initially the circular array is used to generate OAM radiation by configuring it as a conventional phased array system with appropriate phase excitation. The array is then configured to operate as a time-switched array (TSA). The OAM modes generated by the TSA are compared to those obtained from the phased array system. Results are presented to show that the TSA radiates simultaneous multiple OAM modes at the harmonic frequencies generated by time switching the array.

Sensors such as phased array radars play a crucial role in public safety. They are unavoidable for surveillance, threat identification and post-disaster management. However, different scenarios impose immensely diverse requirements for these systems. Phased array systems occupy a large space. In addition, if different antenna systems are needed for each function, the space required can be considerably large. For transportable platforms, such as ships and aircrafts, space and weight are critical parameters. Therefore, reconfigurable multi-band antennas are very attractive solutions for future multi-function sensor systems. Within this research work three different approaches are investigated to realize antennas for reconfigurable phased arrays. Wideband antenna designs constitute the first approach. Integrating this type of antennas with frequency selective filters provide the opportunity for fine tuning within one radar band. The wideband operation of the antenna is achieved by the blind-via feeding section and the quasi electric-magnetic radiating structure. The second approach involves the design of an antenna element with p-I-n diode switches. The switches are used to alter the antenna structure and thereby the operating frequency. Measured results verified the frequency reconfigurable capability of the antenna within L/S radar bands with frequency ratio more than 2:1. The planar structure, the back feeding mechanism, the compact size and the simple bias network made the proposed antenna suitable for array applications. The large frequency ratio and its usability in phased array applications made the design novel. Furthermore, for these frequency reconfigurable elements, a unique multi-scale array structure is introduced which can assure wide angle scanning for both frequency bands. The advantage of this novel array configuration is twofold: reduce the mutual couplings in the lower band, and increase the scanning volume for the higher band. A planar array demonstrator validated the proposed concept. In the third approach the operational band of an antenna is tuned by variable-impedance matching. In this study, the standard 50 ? matching is avoided and many advantages of variable-impedance matching are demonstrated. First, the principle is verified by tuning the frequency band of a microstrip antenna by an input-impedance tuneable CMOS RF-frontend. In the second design a novel dual-band E-slot antenna, with 2.5:1 frequency ratio, was designed. By changing the input-impedance the operating frequency of the antenna can be switched from L- to S-band. Variable-impedance matching provides few other advantages to phased array antennas. A scan-angle dependent impedance matching will assure low reflection coefficients for the entire scanning volume. On the other hand, it will reduce interfering and jamming signals coming from adjacent angles. The outcomes of this research work have led to solid understanding of how we can realize frequency reconfigurable antennas for adaptive phased arrays. The results will be particularly valuable in developing future narrow or wide beam radar systems with frequency reconfiguration and angular filtering capabilities.

This paper presents the development, fabrication, and measurement of a novel beam-forming system consisting of 16 subarray antennas, each containing four aperture-coupled patch antennas, and the application of this system in smart wireless communication systems. The beam patterns of each of the subarray antennas can be switched toward one of nine zones over a half space by adjusting the specific phase delay angles among the four antenna elements. Furthermore, when all subarrays are pointed at the same zone, slightly continuous beam steering in around 1° increments can be achieved by dynamically altering the progressive phase delay angle among the subarrays. Phase angle calibration was implemented by coupling each transmitter output and down converter into the in-phase/quadrature baseband to calculate the correction factor to the weight. In addition, to validate the proposed concepts and the fabricated 2-D phased array antenna system, this study measured the far-field radiation patterns of the aperture-coupled patch array integrated with feeding networks and a phase-calibration system to carefully verify its spatially switched-beam and beam-steering characteristics at a center frequency of 2.4 GHz which can cover the industrial, scientific, and medical band and some long-term evolution applications. In addition, measured results were compared with calculated results, and agreement between them was observed.

A space-fed X-band phased array antenna (PAA) is presented. The space-fed PAA uses physically autonomous individually addressable unit cells as the building blocks of an arbitrarily large array antenna. The X-band PAA unit cell consists of both a feed facing printed antenna element and a target facing printed antenna element. These elements are related by an RF phase shifter placed in the RF signal path between them which introduces relative phase delay and enables analog beam forming. Unit cell autonomy is realized by wirelessly transferring power and command signals required to operate a microcontroller (MCU) and the RF phase shifter at each unit cell. Each unit cell includes RF to DC conversion circuitry as well as an MCU designed to interpret a common control signal and command unit cell phase delay. The wireless phased array unit cell can be replicated in configurations of size and shape that are independent of RF, power, and array module control distribution networks. To demonstrate feasibility a four-element wireless PAA is constructed and antenna patterns for various control states are shown.

Formulation of the problem. Many electronic applications (for example, satellite communications) impose significant restrictions on the weight and dimensions of the antenna devices used. In addition, the antennas used should have the lowest possible cost and simplicity of design. To solve these problems, it is proposed to use a method for reducing the number of antenna elements in phased antenna arrays based on the method of point sources. Purpose. The purpose of this work is to develop a method for reducing the number of antenna elements in phased antenna arrays while maintaining the parameters of their radiation patterns. Results. As a solution, it is proposed to place the antenna elements above the metal sheet at a distance 1.5–2 times smaller than the size of the antenna array itself, which will significantly reduce the number of elements of the latter without deteriorating its radiation pattern during wide-angle two-coordinate scanning of space with the main lobe. Practical significance. Obtained results can be used to create phased antenna arrays with a reduced number of elements, which will reduce the size, weight and cost of the device.

Phased array antenna systems, which support high pulse rates and high transmit power, are well suited for radar and large-scale surveillance. Sensors and communication systems can function as the eyes and ears for ballistic missile defense applications, providing early warning of attack, target detection and identification, target tracking, and countermeasure decision. In such applications, active array radar systems that contain solid-state transmitter sources and low-noise preamplifiers for transmission and reception are preferred over the conventional radar antennas, because the phased array radar offers the advantages of power management and efficiency, reliability, signal reception, beam steering target detection. The current phased array radar designs are very large, complex and expensive and less efficient because of high RF losses in the phase control circuits used for beam scan. Several thousands of phase shifters and drivers may be required for a single system thus making the system very complex and expensive. This paper describes the phased array radar system based on high power T/R modules, wide-band radiating planar antenna elements and very low loss wide-band phase control circuits (requiring reduced power levels) for beam scan. The phase shifter design is based on micro-strip feed lines perturbed by the proximity of voltage controlled piezoelectric transducer (PET). Measured results have shown an added insertion loss of less than 1 dB for a phase shift of 450 degrees from 2 to 20 GHz. The new wideband phased array radar design provides significant reduction in size cost and weight. Compared to the conventional phased array systems, the cost saving is more than 15 to 1.

A novel antenna element has been proposed for maritime satellite communication Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) phased array antenna system. The proposed antenna element is composed of a square radiating patch, two vertical trapezoidal coupling strips and a T-junction power splitter feeding network. A dual orthogonal side coupled feeding technique has been adopted to realize a circularly polarized square patch antenna. Design concepts and procedures are introduced, followed by simulations and discussions. Good antenna characteristics are achieved in the entire BGAN working band, having input impedance match characteristics of S <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> <;-15dB, antenna gain higher than 7dBi, and the axial ratio lower than 4dB.

Phased Array Antennas (PAAs), using patch -radiating elements, are projected to transmit data at rates several orders of magnitu de higher than currently offered with reflector -based systems. However, there are a number of potential sources of degradation in the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the communications link that are unique to PAA -based links. Short spacing of radiatin g elements can induce mutual coupling between radiating elements, long spacing can induce grating lobes, modulo 2� phase errors can add to Inter - Symbol Interference (ISI), and phase shifters and power divider network introduce losses into the system. This paper describes efforts underway to test and evaluate the effects of the performance degrading features of phased - array antennas when used in a high data rate modulation link. The system effects created by small increments in the scan angle, as would be experienced during a LEO system passing over a fixed point on the ground, have been simulated in the far field environment and analyzed. Computer simulation of the system under test has also been conducted by creating models using Matlab/Simulink. Variations of the test configuration, including a lower carrier frequency to data rate ratio and various modulation schemes, have been analyzed with these models. The results from the experimentation and simulation will be discussed and the impact for future implementations will be examined.

Sub-beam concept is very useful for size reduction of multiple beam phased array antenna (PAA) systems that are applied for high-throughput communication satellites. In this paper, the synthesis procedure for a PAA with multiple sub-beams in two dimensions of the coverage domain is proposed and analyzed. In the design procedure, the interleaved sub-arraying technique has been applied to eliminate the grating lobes. The extremely short angular distance between adjacent sub-beams is challenging. An innovative beam forming network is proposed, which can generate multiple orthogonal sub-beams while keeping the required angular distance between sub-beams. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the design technique, an example considering the requirements derived from conceptual design of a high-throughput communication payload is presented. The array is optimized using the genetic algorithm while taking into account the technical requirements of the antenna. The gain patterns exhibit a 0.4° angular distance between adjacent sub-beams. In addition, the number of sub-arrays and element spacing guarantee the orthogonality of the sub-beams. The calculated carrier to interference ratio in the synthesized array shows that it has acceptable values in each spot. The aperture size reduction in the synthesized array compared to a conventional multiple beam array is more than 36.7%.

Abstract. The antenna cross polarization suppression (CPS) is of significant importance for the accurate calculation of polarimetric weather radar moments. State-of-the-art reflector antennas fulfill these requirements, but phased array antennas are changing their CPS during the main beam shift, off-broadside direction. Since the cross polarization (x-pol) of the array pattern is affected by the x-pol element factor, the single antenna element should be designed for maximum CPS, not only at broadside, but also for the complete angular electronic scan (e-scan) range of the phased array antenna main beam positions. Different methods for reducing the x-pol radiation from microstrip patch antenna elements, available from literature sources, are discussed and summarized. The potential x-pol sources from probe fed microstrip patch antennas are investigated. Due to the lack of literature references, circular and square shaped X-Band radiators are compared in their x-pol performance and the microstrip patch antenna size variation was analyzed for improved x-pol pattern. Furthermore, the most promising technique for the reduction of x-pol radiation, namely "differential feeding with two RF signals 180° out of phase", is compared to single fed patch antennas and thoroughly investigated for phased array applications with simulation results from CST MICROWAVE STUDIO (CST MWS). A new explanation for the excellent port isolation of dual linear polarized and differential fed patch antennas is given graphically. The antenna radiation pattern from single fed and differential fed microstrip patch antennas are analyzed and the shapes of the x-pol patterns are discussed with the well-known cavity model. Moreover, two new visual based electromagnetic approaches for the explanation of the x-pol generation will be given: the field line approach and the surface current distribution approach provide new insight in understanding the generation of x-pol component in microstrip patch antenna radiation patterns.

To perform wide-angle scanning while maintaining a planar low profile, we propose a new kind of millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) planar phased array antenna using inclined beam elements to imitate a curved surface conformal (CSC) array, called a pseudo-CSC (PCSC) phased array antenna. We present the concept of our PCSC phased array and then design an elongated planar aperture antenna (EPAA) element, achieving stable high broadside gain and wide beam on the scanning plane within a wide bandwidth. Then, by introducing asymmetries to the EPAA element, the beam inclination of the EPAA element can be adjusted. Accordingly, we use EPAA elements with different beam inclinations to form a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\times4$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -element 1-D wide-angle scanning PCSC phased array antenna. We design, fabricate, and measure a prototype of our proposal, with measured results showing that the proposed design has a 3 dB gain variation across a scanning range of more than ±62° (and as high as ±68°) within the 5G mm-Wave band (24.25–29.5 GHz), which is about ±10° better than its traditional counterpart.