An overlapped subarray for limited scan application

This paper describes a new technique for producing an overlapped subarray pattern by higher order mode coupling between nearest neighbor phased array elements. Theoretical and experimental results are compared and practical circuits are described for one plane of scan.     

An optical subarray antenna having antenna nulling applications

A linear subarray type optical antenna is considered for adaptive applications. The antenna has a small number of subarrays whose radiation patterns cover the region occupied by targets and interference in a near-optimum fashion. The subarray design is such that very low subarray pattern sidelobes are produced, thereby allowing operation in the presence of additional strong interference outside the subarray beams. The design of a near-optimum sheet metal antenna to perform these functions is described and the performance is analyzed.     

Maximising capacity of MIMO systems with receive antenna subarray formation

Antenna subarray formation is a novel RF pre-processing technique that reduces hardware complexity of multiple-input multiple-output systems while alleviating the performance degradation of conventional antenna selection techniques. With this method, each RF chain is allocated to a linear combination of the responses of a subset of the available antenna elements, which is performed in the radio frequency domain. A novel, analytical, suboptimal algorithm is introduced for receive antenna subarray formation based on instantaneous channel information that maximises the effective channel capacity.     

A dense overlapped linear subarray architecture for interference suppressing in small‐scale arrays

Compared to omnidirectional antennas, smart antenna arrays are qualified such advantages as lower interference and better spatial reuse. As developed from large‐scale phased array radar, subarray technology is a key approach to reduce the computational complexity, and a quantity of algorithms for subarray partition and low sidelobe has been studied and applied in radar system. With the development of hardware manufacture, portability and mobility are the trend of devices, which limit the array aperture and number of elements, and the performances are constrained by elements number. This paper proposes a dense overlapped subarray architecture for linear array when elements number is small, to improve the array gain and output signal to interference plus noise ratio, and different weighting mode is employed at element and subarray level for adaptive digital beamforming to obtain special performances. The subarray partition is presented for the linear array, which keeps the spacing at subarray level half wavelength to avoid grating lobes and nulls, and the simulation results demonstrate that the subarray architecture induces better output signal to interference plus noise ratio; meanwhile, the computational amount is reduced. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An experimental evaluation of multiplate antenna properties

A large steerable-beam antenna can be built by using a number of independent reflectors that redirect energy from a desired direction to a focus. An experimental program of measurement has determined the radiation pattern, the efficiency, and the relative change of gain and antenna temperature vs. beam angle of a test section of a multiplate antenna. The effect of the interstices in the reflecting surface produced grating lobes of approximately -20 dB and an additional temperature component that varied from20degK-65degK depending on the beam angle.     

低复杂度单天线ADS-B交织位置检测

广播式自动相关监视（Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, ADS-B）信号的交织会使信息读取失误,因此解交织技术必不可少。解交织算法通常要先进行交织位置检测,再利用无交织部分信号进行解交织,故交织位置检测是解交织算法中的重要步骤,现有的交织位置检测主要依据奇异值分解（Singular Value Decomposition,SVD）法,但该方法复杂度高且位置检测不够精确。因此本文基于单天线ADS-B信号的时域波形特点,利用交织信号的波形与标准信号的波形差异,提出一种低复杂度的交织位置检测方法。利用报头脉冲位置的固定性对报头进行交织位置检测,再依据数据域脉冲宽度及幅度等特征对该部分信号进行检测。仿真和实采数据结果均验证了本文所提算法可精准、高效地检测到信号的交织位置。      

Robust transceiver design for wideband MIMO radar utilizing a subarray antenna structure

In this paper, we investigate the possibility to suppress interference in wideband multiple-input multiple-output radar. The idea is to employ tunable filters at the transmitter and the receiver sides, and to derive filter coefficients that result in optimal transmitted signals from a system performance point of view, for a given radar scenario. The system performance is measured in signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) at the receiver output, from which the filter properties are derived. The focus is to suppress active jamming interference, and especially deceptive jamming interference. We discuss two ways to derive the transmit and the receive filters. Each procedure utilizes two different power constraints related to the transmit filters. To incorporate imperfections in the given scenario, a robust extension to the design problem is proposed. Two different robust methods are evaluated: one that utilizes a Taylor series expansion of the SINR, and one that exploits a worst-case SINR maximization. Numerical validation illustrates the possibility to suppress interference without actually forming a spatial null in the direction towards interference, and the necessity to design transmit filters that are robust to uncertainties in the given scenario.     

有源相控阵天线子阵划分对旁瓣匿影性能影响

由于缺少旁瓣匿影性能评估的统一标准,子阵划分对旁瓣匿影性能影响研究较少。对此,本文提出旁瓣匿影性能评估参量——旁瓣匿影率,其本质是计算满足旁瓣匿影要求区域占整个方向图区域的比例。其中保护通道直接利用子阵级数据通过加权非相参积累方式构建,可实现保护通道的自适应干扰抑制,支撑干扰条件下的自适应旁瓣匿影。实验表明,子阵划分非均匀性越强,子阵数越多,扫描角越小,有源相控阵天线的旁瓣匿影率越高,旁瓣匿影性能越好。     

An experimental SMI adaptive antenna array simulator for weakinterfering signals

An experimental sample matrix inversion (SMI) adaptive antenna array for suppressing weak interfering signals is described. The experimental adaptive array uses a modified SMI algorithm to increase the interference suppression. In the modified SMI algorithm, the sample covariance matrix is redefined to reduce the effect of thermal noise on the weights of an adaptive array. This is accomplished by subtracting a fraction of the smallest eigenvalue of the original covariance matrix from its diagonal entries. The test results obtained using the experimental system are compared with theoretical results. The two show a good agreement     

An experimental study of the insulated dipole antenna immersed in a conducting medium

The driving-point admittance and the amplitude and phase distributions of the current referred to the driving-point were measured for an insulated cylindrical antenna immersed in a conducting medium. The ratiosigma/omegaepsilon_{r}epsilon_{0}of the conducting medium was varied fromsigma/omegaepsilon_{r}epsilon_{0}= 0.036to 8.8, a range which includes a variety of media such as poor insulators, the ionosphere, plasmas, dry earth, wet earth, lake water and sea water. The antenna heightbeta hin radians was varied frombeta h=0.1throughbeta h=2piat intervals of 0.1. The thickness of the insulator was varied fromb/a = 1.25tob/a = 12.0whereais the radius of the antenna andbthe radius of the insulator. Measurements have also been made of the admittance, current and phase distributions along an insulated antenna with a conductive top load, that is, one whose tip is in direct contact with the conducting medium. It is found that when the tip of the antenna is in direct contact with the conducting medium, the current increases almost linearly as the end of the antenna is approached. This is quite unlike the decaying sinusoidal distribution on the completely insulated antenna. In a general sense, the experimental results are in fair agreement with an approximate theoretical expression for the admittance of an insulated antenna immersed in a highly conducting solution. The approximate theory is based on the driving-point admittance of a coaxial line whose outer conductor is imperfectly conducting and infinite in extent.     

Efficiency calculation of feed structures and optimum number of antenna elements in a subarray for highest G/T

For an antenna array, different feed structure topologies may yield the same radiation characteristics. However, different topologies may result in different efficiency and noise performance. In this paper, parallel arm antenna arrays are analyzed for efficiency and noise temperature using the noise equivalent line length method (NELL) with the number of antenna elements in a subarray as a parameter. It is shown that efficiency of an antenna array feed structure as well as its noise temperature can be calculated using the NELL method. The comparison of the two parameters, efficiency and noise temperature, yield the optimum number of antenna elements in a subarray of a parallel arm antenna array for the highest G/T ratio.     

An efficient multiple shortest augmenting paths algorithm for constructing high performance VLSI subarray

Reconfiguring a high-performance subarray of a VLSI array with faults is to construct a maximum target array with the minimum number of long interconnects, which can reduce communication costs, capacitance and dynamic energy dissipation. An existing work proved that the high performance VLSI subarray can be constructed in polynomial time using network flow algorithm. However, because of the disadvantage of the previous network model and the low-performing of standard network flow algorithms for reconfiguration, the efficiency of these algorithms is poor for constructing the high performance VLSI subarray. In this paper, we present an efficient multiple shortest augmenting paths algorithm for rapidly constructing high performance VLSI array. Firstly, we proposed an efficient data structure to construct the network model of the VLSI array with faults, which can dramatically reduce the size of the model compared with previous algorithm. Secondly, a multiple shortest augmenting path algorithm based on the new data structure is proposed, which can significant reduce the running time. Finally, we conduct solid experiments to highlight the efficiency of the proposed method in terms of the running time compared to the standard network flow algorithms. The experimental results show that on a 64 × 64 host array with 0.1% faults, the size of the network model can be reduced by about 50% and the average improvements in running time is up to 85.10% compared with four standard network flow algorithms.     

Recent experimental results in near-field antenna measurements

Recent experimental results on determination of antenna pattern and power gain from near-field measurements are described. Two new antenna measurement theorems were applied. Measurements were made on an electrically large horn lens, a standard-gain horn and a nominal duplicate of the measuring antenna. Some comparisons with direct far-field measurement results were made.     

An integrated quasi-planar leaky-wave antenna

A new quasi-planar leaky-wave antenna is presented. It consists of microstrip line on one side of the substrate and uniplanar circuit on the other side placed in a partially opened waveguide. The leakage is produced by the excitation of the first higher order (odd) microstrip mode coupled electromagnetically through a slotline on the opposite side of the substrate. Theoretic results based on rigorous Green's impedance integral equation method show that the new microstrip-slotline-coupled leaky-wave antenna has a broadband tuning range via structure parameters and is insensitive to the microstrip line width variation. Measured relative power absorbed (RPA) results indicate that the useful frequency bandwidth agrees with that predicted by rigorous field theory. The measured antenna radiation patterns also agree very well with the approximate theoretic computations. The theory and experiments show that the proposed leaky-wave antenna can interface to feeding structure easily and directly. The new antenna may become a good candidate for microwave and millimeter-wave integrated antenna design     

An electronically scanned beacon antenna

An electronically scanned cylindrical array having a minimum number of active devices has been designed. A saving of over 3 to 1 in diode elements as compared to conventional approaches has been achieved. In addition to providing instantaneous positioning to any azimuth direction, a constant azimuth beamwidth for an elevation fan beam has been realized. Extremely low azimuth sidelobes are obtained, and a straightforward synthesis procedure can provide elevation aperture designs to meet typical elevation pattern requirements. A modified Myer geodesic lens combined with a diode sequencing switch for coarse steering and a phased matrix feed for fine steering form the basis of the system. Sum and difference patterns show virtually no variation with scan or elevation angle and an omni-pattern is also available. Detailed pattern calculations as well as measured data on prototypes of key elements of the system are presented to verify the feasibility of the approach.     

An antenna beam modeling algorithm

A parametric model is presented in this paper which characterizes the beam response behavior of a given antenna for circular, linear vertical, and linear horizontal polarizations. The model parameters are defined by a nonlinear Kalman filtering algorithm which effectively estimates these parameters from measured antenna pattern data. Results of the modeling process are shown and compared against the actual (measured) beam pattern data.     

An electromagnetic bandgap resonator antenna

This paper introduces a new explanation of the electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) material properties using the study of the EBG structures in the frequency domain and reciprocal space. Once the behavior of such a material is understood, the properties of the EBG are used in order to make an EBG antenna. The antenna is realized with dielectric EBG rods. Its directivity is increased compared to a simple patch antenna. Such a device allows us to obtain a high gain with a very thin structure.     

An experimental study of electronic scanning by an antenna loaded with a circular array of ferrite rods

The measured performances of the antenna which consists of a circular array of 12 anisotropic ferrite rods, a truncated biconical horn, and a core wire of a coaxial cable at the center of the biconical horn are presented. The following are made clear. The transmitting pattern having a single big lobe and suppressed sidelobes is obtained by the effects of the appropriate ferrite anisotropy and of the interactions among the ferrite rods. The main lobe cannot be rotated continuously, but at intervals of about30degby gradually changing the axial magnetic fields applied to the respective ferrites; that agrees with what was expected by the two-dimensional theory. Reciprocity does not hold for this antenna: the receiving pattern coincides with the transmitting pattern rotated180deg. Hence, this antenna permits us to receive from a direction and simultaneously to transmit in a different direction. The frequency characteristics of the antenna including the input impedance are also shown and discussed.