Performance analysis of the mutual coupling effect on Phased Array Feeds

A phased array feed(PAF)is a type of receiving array that places phased array antennas on the focal plane of a radio telescope to expand its field of view and improve observation efficiency.Owing to the mutual coupling effect between elements caused by a tightly arranged feed array,which changes the performance of a PAF,this paper presents a 7×7 rectangular feed array model for a 25 m reflector telescope.By adjusting the element spacings,the performance of a PAF with different spacings is comprehensively analyzed with respect to the mutual coupling effect via performance statistics and comparison.This research aims to provide a reference for the preliminary design of a related PAF.

Design of Ka-Band Phased Array Antenna with Calibration Function

In this paper,we have proposed a novel structure of Ka-band based phased array antenna with calibration function.In the design of Kaband antenna,the active phased array system is adopted and the antenna would work in the dual polarization separation mode.We have given out the schematic diagram for the proposed Ka-band antenna,where the Kaband antenna is in the form of waveguide slot array antenna,with 96 units in azimuth and 1 unit in distance.Each group of units is driven by a singlechannel Transmitter/Receiver(T/R)component,and the whole array contains 192 T/R components in total.The size of the T/R component is 55mm(length)×50mm(width)×5.8mm(height),3 Sub-micro Sub-Miniature Push-on(SSMP)blind sockets and a 21-core low-frequency socket are designed on the two sides of the T/R component.In order to meet the technical specifications of phased array antenna,the Ka-band transceiver component is designed based on Low Temperatrue Co-fired Ceramic(LTCC)technology to achieve miniaturization and lightweight.In our approach,the feed network includes two parts:transceiver network and calibration network.The transceiver network consists of 241:8 time-delay power dividers,12 two-way power dividers and 2 six-way time-delay power dividers.The power supply required by theKaband antenna unit is provided to each active component by the power module after Ka band wavelet control distribution.Simulation and measurement results are given in the form of standing wave and scanning capability.

A Combined Antenna Array Deployment with High Positioning Accuracy and Low Angular Measurement Error

In this paper,an antenna array composed of circular array and orthogonal linear array is proposed by using the design of long and short baseline“orthogonal linear array”and the circular array ambiguity resolution design of multi-group baseline clustering.The effectiveness of the antenna array in this paper is verified by sufficient simulation and experiment.After the system deviation correction work,it is found that in the L/S/C/X frequency bands,the ambiguity resolution probability is high,and the phase difference system error between each channel is basically the same.The angle measurement error is less than 0.5°,and the positioning error is less than 2.5 km.Notably,as the center frequency increases,calibration consistency improves,and the calibration frequency points become applicable over a wider frequency range.At a center frequency of 11.5 GHz,the calibration frequency point bandwidth extends to 1200 MHz.This combined antenna array deployment holds significant promise for a wide range of applications in contemporary wireless communication systems.

Analysis of electrical performances of planar active phased array antennas with distorted array plane

The influence of the distorted plane of the active phased array antenna on the electromagnetic performance is of great significance to the research on and development of the high-performance antennas. On the bent and bowl-shape distortion, the model is established of the relationship between the electromagnetic performance and the position error of the radiated elements. The method is presented of analyzing the far-field pattern of the distorted rectangular active phased array antenna. The analysis results of a planar phased array antenna with different distortions grades prove the validity of the model. Therefore, by the method, the antenna designers may set the reasonable requirement on the structural tolerance in manufacturing antenna.

GA-based approach to phase compensation of large phased array antennas

The investigation of the effect of electrical and mechanical errors on the performance of a large active phased array antenna is studied. These errors can decrease the antenna performance, for instance, the gain reduction, side lobe level enhancement, and incorrect beam direction. In order to improve the performance of the antenna in the presence of these errors, phase error correction of large phased array antennas using the genetic algorithm（GA） is implemented. By using the phase compensation method, the antenna overall radiation pattern is recovered close to the ideal radiation pattern without error. By applying the simulation data to a 32×40 array of elements with a square grid at the frequency of S-band and measurement of the radiation pattern, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.

A Novel 28 GHz Phased Array Antenna for 5G Mobile Communications

A novel phased array antenna consisting of 256 elements is presented and experimentally verified for 5G millimeter-wave wireless communications.The antenna integrated with a wave control circuit can perform real-time beam scanning by reconfiguring the phase of an antenna unit.The unit,designed at 28 GHz using a simple patch structure with one PIN diode,can be electronically controlled to generate 1 bit phase quantization.A prototype of the antenna is fabricated and measured to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.The measurement results indicate that the antenna achieves high gain and fast beam-steering,with the scan beams within±60°range and the maximum gain up to 21.7 dBi.Furthermore,it is also tested for wireless video transmission.In ZTE Shanghai,the antenna was used for the 5G New Radio(NR)test.The error vector magnitude(EVM)is less than 3%and the adjacent channel leakage ratio(ACLR)less than−35 dBc,which can meet 5G system requirements.Compared with the conventional phased array antenna,the proposed phased array has the advantages of low power consumption,low cost and conformal geometry.Due to these characteristics,the antenna is promising for wide applications in 5G millimeter-wave communication systems.

Particle simulations on propagation and resonance of lower hybrid wave launched by phased array antenna in linear devices

In this work, we performed first-principles electromagnetic-kinetic simulations to study a phased antenna array and its interaction with deuterium plasmas within the lower hybrid range of frequency. We first gave wave accessibility and resonance results, which agree well with theoretical prediction. In addition, we further investigated the antenna power spectrum with different antenna phases in the presence of the plasma and compared it with that in a vacuum,which directly indicates wave coupling and plasma absorption. Furthermore, for the case with zero phasing difference, our simulation results show that, albeit the launch is away from the accessibility region, tunneling effect and mode conversion occurred, which enhanced coupling and absorption. Moreover, consistent interactions between the injected wave and the plasma concerning various antenna phase differences are shown. We presented the inchoate response of the plasma in terms of the launching directions. Our results could be favorable for the engineering design of wave heating experiments with a tunable phased antenna array in linear devices, such as simple magnetic mirrors or tandem mirrors.

Vehicular Radio Scanner Using Phased Array Antenna for Dedicated Short Range Communication Service

Now a day’s accidents are very common due to increased population of vehicle. In order to ensure safety measures in the vehicle this paper has proposed some methodologies regarding careful driving by automatically scanning and analyzing the blind spot area of an intelligent mobile vehicle. A vehicular antenna with minimum perturbation is proposed to be fitted on the vehicle and collect information of the concern area which would ensure visibility of the operator i.e. masked or integrated within the car body. This paper has dealt with the design of Tchebyscheff polynomial based prototype planar microstrip phased array antenna and also redesigned the same when implemented in the body of the car being considered as an electromagnetically large element. Both the design has been experimentally verified with the measurement. The simulated and the measured results in both the cases are found to be in good agreement. More than 11 dB gain was observed at perfectly 30° angles from its broad side direction as desired for blind spot detection with minimum amount of electromagnetic interference inside the car.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF ANNULAR PHASED ARRAY OF DIPOLE ANTENNAS USING THE FD-TD METHOD

The problem for calculating near fields of EM radiation systems by using the finitedifference time domain(FD-TD)method are discussed and the annular phased array of dipoleantennas has been simulated numerically by use of the FD-TD method.For a test run thenear field and current distribution of the single dipole antenna are calculated.The near fieldsof the annular phased array of dipole antennas in central region filled with deionized water arecomputed and the interaction of near fields with an anatomically-based inhomogeneous model ofhuman torso is considered as well.

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF MULTI-STEP AMPLITUDE QUANTIZATION WEIGHTED 2-D SOLID-STATE ACTIVE PHASED ARRAY ANTENNAS

An aperture design technique using multi-step amplitude quantization for two-dimensional solid-state active phased arrays to achieve low sidelobe is described. It can be applied to antennas with arbitrary complex aperture. Also, the gain drop and sidelobe degradation due to random amplitude and phase errors and element (or T/R module) failures are investigated.

Tile Type Multi-Channel Transceiver Module Applied for Phased Array Antenna

In order to reduce the volume and weight of phase array antenna in RF frequency, an integrated technology of multi-channel transceiver circuit and power division network in microwave is proposed for the tile type TR module. The component is integrated in a same dielectric substrate, the mounting interface of chips and power division network are on the same layer. Finally, a 8 × 8 array has been manufactured and tested to validate its function. The results show the integrated technology has good performance. It is very good to satisfy the miniaturization and lightweight of the T/R module in the active phased array antenna.

Design and Analysis of Microstrip Antenna Arrays in Composite Laminated Substrates

In high performance aerospace systems where weight and aerodynamics are of major concern, fiber reinforced composite laminates can be tailored to achieve desirable mechanical properties and accommodate low-profile microstrip antenna. This work aims at the analysis of microstrip antenna array embedded in composite laminated substrates. The size of a single antenna is first calculated by spectral domain analysis to model the effects of the substrate’s electromagnetic property and the orientation of the laminate layers. The antenna array as well as the feed network, composed of microstrip transmission lines, quarter wave-length impedance transformers, and T-junction power dividers, is then tuned to accommodate the effects of the coupling between the antenna elements and the feed network loss. The performance of the 1 × 2, 1 × 4, and 1 × 8 linear array and 2 × 2 and 2 × 4 planar array are shown to have better directivity when embedded in composite laminated substrate compared with those when attached on isotropic substrate. Both 1 × 2 and 1 × 4 arrays at 2.4 GHz are validated experimentally to achieve better coverage.

Design of a High-Gain 2 × 1 Array Antenna for S-Band Applications

Antennas are an indispensable element in wireless networks. For long-distance wireless communication, antenna gains need to be very strong (highly directive) because the signal from the antenna loses a lot of strength as it travels over long distances. This is true in the military with missile, radar, and satellite systems, etc. Antenna arrays are commonly employed to focus electromagnetic waves in a certain direction that cannot be achieved perfectly with a single-element antenna. The goal of this study is to design a rectangular microstrip high-gain 2 × 1 array antenna using ADS Momentum. This microstrip patch array design makes use of the RT-DUROID 5880 as a substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.2, substrate height of 1.588 mm, and tangent loss of 0.001. To achieve efficient gain and return loss characteristics for the proposed array antenna, RT-Duroid is a good choice of dielectric material. The designed array antenna is made up of two rectangular patches, which have a resonance frequency of 3.3 GHz. These rectangular patches are excited by microstrip feed lines with 13 mm lengths and 4.8 mm widths. The impedance of the patches is perfectly matched by these transmission lines, which helps to get better antenna characteristics. At a resonance frequency of 3.3 GHz, the suggested antenna array has a directivity of 10.50 dB and a maximum gain of 9.90 dB in the S-band. The S parameters, 3D radiation pattern, directivity, gain, and efficiency of the constructed array antenna are all available in ADS Momentum.

Compact wideband microstrip array antenna with beam squint

A compact wideband microstrip array antenna with a squint beam is introduced without the matched load. Its measured beam is at 10° offset to the broadside with a measured gain of 12 dB at 10 GHz. The measured impedance bandwidth （voltage standing wave ratio （VSWR）≤2） is over 16%, which agrees well with the simulated one. It is a low-cost wideband design with compact simple structure, suited for military and commercial application.

Miniaturized Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Antenna

In this article we propose a miniaturized dual-band electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna. The antenna can generate up to two steerable beams. The beam-steering range of the proposed antenna is 360˚ in the azimuth plane. The antenna’s eual-band coverage includes the frequency ranges from 2.3 GHz to 2.53 GHz and from 2.9 GHz to 3.7 GHz. The antenna consists of six folded parasitic monopole elements surrounding an active conical element. The folded monopole element design offers three times lower antenna height than that of the conventional ESPAR antennas. The active element has conical shape and it is larger in length than the parasitic monopole elements, this enables the dual-band operation. Thus, the proposed design is not only smaller than the conventional ESPAR antennas but it also achieves dual-band operation. Despite its compact design, the antenna has a peak gain of 6.3 dBi, which is equivalent to the gain of conventional ESPAR antennas. These characteristics make the antenna a good candidate for next generation communication systems.

A Precise Calibration Method on Phase Center of Uplink Antenna Array Considering Its Actual Pointing

With regard to the inferior techniques and low accuracy of phase center calibration of an antenna array, this paper proposes a new calibration method considering the actual antenna pointing by introducing a precise engineering surveying technique to measure the real state of antennas. First, an industrial photogrammetric system is utilized to obtain the coordinates of points on antenna panels in different postures, and the actual pointing of the mechanical axis is obtained via least-squares fitting. Then, based on this, the coordinates of antenna rotation center are obtained by seeking the intersection of mechanical axes via using the matrix method. Finally, the mechanical axis in arbitrary postures is estimated based on the inverse-angle weighting interpolation method, and the reliable phase center is obtained by moving a fixed length from the projective center along the mechanical axis. An uplink antenna array including three ? 3 m antennas is taken as experimental object, and all photogrammetric coordinate systems are unified by the engineering control network, with each antenna phase center precisely calibrated via the proposed method. The results of electrical signal synthesis indicate that this method can effectively overcome the influence of gravity deformation and mechanical installation error, and enhance the synthetic signal magnitude of the uplink antenna array.

Novel Fractal DGS Based on MEMS and Its Application in Miniaturization of Microstrip Antenna Array

An uncommon fractal construction method is applied in the microwave element design. A novel fractal defected ground structure （DGS） based on micro electro-mechanical system （MEMS） is proposed. The size of this novel fractal DGS can achieve 86% size reduction compared with the conventional dumbbell type DGS. This novel fractal DGS is used in the miniaturization design of L-band microstrip antenna array. The simulation result shows that this novel fractal DGS can effectively reduce the mutual coupling between the antenna elements, so it is helpful to the miniaturization of microstrip array, namely the approximately same gain value can be achieved with the shorter distance between elements.

A Highly Efficient Algorithm for Phased-Array mmWave Massive MIMO Beamforming

With the rapid development of the mobile internet and the internet of things(IoT),the fifth generation(5G)mobile communication system is seeing explosive growth in data traffic.In addition,low-frequency spectrum resources are becoming increasingly scarce and there is now an urgent need to switch to higher frequency bands.Millimeter wave(mmWave)technology has several outstanding features—it is one of the most well-known 5G technologies and has the capacity to fulfil many of the requirements of future wireless networks.Importantly,it has an abundant resource spectrum,which can significantly increase the communication rate of a mobile communication system.As such,it is now considered a key technology for future mobile communications.MmWave communication technology also has a more open network architecture;it can deliver varied services and be applied in many scenarios.By contrast,traditional,all-digital precoding systems have the drawbacks of high computational complexity and higher power consumption.This paper examines the implementation of a new hybrid precoding system that significantly reduces both calculational complexity and energy consumption.The primary idea is to generate several sub-channels with equal gain by dividing the channel by the geometric mean decomposition(GMD).In this process,the objective function of the spectral efficiency is derived,then the basic tracking principle and least square(LS)techniques are deployed to design the proposed hybrid precoding.Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves system performance and reduces computational complexity by more than 45%compared to traditional algorithms.

Design of MEMS C-Band Microstrip Antenna Array Based on High-Resistance Silicon for Intelligent Ammunition

In recent years, microstrip antennas have been more widely applied in satellite communications, mobile phones, unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV）, and weapons. A micro-electro-mechanical systems-based （MEMS-based） high-resistance silicon C-band microstrip antenna array has been designed for the intelligent ammunition. The center frequency is 4.5 GHz. A cavity has been designed in substrate to reduce the dielectric constant of silicon and high-resistance silicon has been used as the material of substrate to improve the gain of antenna. It is very easy to be manufactured by using MEMS technology because of the improved structure of the antenna. The results show that the gain of the antenna is 8 dB and voltage standing wave ratio （VSWR） is less than 2 by the analysis and simulation in high freauencv structure simulator （HFSS）.

A Linear Array Antenna of Microstrip Patch Antennas Fed by the Open-End of Coplanar Waveguides

In this study, we constructed a 4-element linear array antenna using four 20 GHz band microstrip patch antennas with a structure such that the signal is fed to the patch antennas from open-end coplanar waveguides without contact. We investigated factors related to the design of linear array patch antennas. To adjust the maximum radiation direction and reduce return loss, we optimized the spacing between the elements and their shape. With an element spacing of 11.50 mm, patch width of 3.90 mm, and patch length of 4.15 mm, we obtained a resonance frequency of 20.05 GHz and a return loss of -29.59 dB at the resonance frequency. However, in the case of a 4-element linear array antenna structure, undesired resonances occurred in frequency bands other than the design resonance frequency band of 20 GHz. To suppress these undesired resonances and obtaining stable operation at the design frequency, we propose a new structure in which the feed line is loaded with a short stub, and show through computer simulations that the occurrence of undesired resonances can be sufficiently suppressed. Furthermore, we demonstrate the problem of radiation gain reduction caused by introducing a short stub, propose a design method for a new structure in which the feed line has slits between the stubs, and show improvement of the antenna gain by 0.5 dBi.