Synthesis of concurrent multibeam and conical beam antenna arrays

An approach is presented to synthesize linear and planar antenna arrays to have concurrent multibeam radiation patterns as well as desired sidelobe levels. This approach is based on zeros perturbation of the pattern of linear arrays. Multibeam planar arrays are synthesized by both multiplying and transforming multibeam linear arrays. Besides, planar arrays having conical or ring type beam are synthesized by applying a special transformation to dual‐beam linear arrays. Some examples are brought to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach for both linear and planar arrays.     

Synthesis of circular arrays with sidelobes of individually arbitrary levels

Synthesis of circular antenna arrays to have individually arbitrary sidelobe levels, is investigated. Circular arrays are synthesized by applying a transformation to previously designed linear arrays. The antennas of the circular arrays are considered either isotropic or directive. The synthesized patterns are steerable without any distortion. Some examples are brought to verify the effectiveness of the proposed procedure for both isotropic and directive antennas.     

Synthesis of sparse planar antenna arrays with multiple constraints

Synthesis of symmetrical sparse planar antenna arrays is introduced in this paper. In order to reduce the peak sidelobe level of the radiation pattern, the element positions of the arrays are optimized by invasive weed optimization with complex boundary conditions. The proposed algorithm changes a two‐dimensional optimization problem into a linear problem, which will reduce the complexity of the optimization procedure. The optimization method can constrain the size of the array aperture, the element number of the array, and the minimum spacing of the adjacent elements simultaneously. The simulation results show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Design of a linear array antenna for shaped beam using genetic algorithm

A linear array antenna design with desired radiation pattern has been presented based on genetic algorithm (GA) approach. Examples of cosecant and flat‐topped beam patterns are illustrated to show the flexibility of GA to solve complex antenna synthesis problems by suitably selecting the fitness function, even with a simple GA. The results have been validated by IE3D electromagnetic simulation. The antenna arrays with different element geometries can also be implemented using the proposed technique. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

High gain substrate integrated waveguide beam scanning antenna with sub‐array elements

A method to enhance the gain of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) beam scanning antenna is proposed in this article. 2 × 2 SIW cavity‐backed sub‐arrays are employed in array design. The antenna is constructed on two layers. The top layer places four SIW cavity‐backed sub‐arrays as radiating elements and the bottom layer is an SIW transmission line to feed the sub‐arrays. Beam scanning feature can be obtained due to the frequency dispersion. Moreover, through separating radiators to the other layer and using 2 × 2 SIW cavity‐backed sub‐arrays as radiating parts, the antenna gain is improved significantly. For a linear array, 4.1 to 6.8 dB gain enhancement is achieved compared to a conventional SIW beam scanning antenna with the same length. Then, the linear array is expanded to form a planar array for further gain improvement. A 64‐element planar beam scanning array is designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental results show that the proposed planar array has a bandwidth from 18.5 GHz to 21. 5 GHz with beam scanning angle from ?5° to 11.5° and gain in the range of 20.5 to 21.8 dBi. The proposed high gain beam scanning antennas have potential applications in radar detection and imaging.     

Optimal array factor radiation pattern synthesis for linear antenna array using cat swarm optimization: validation by an electromagnetic simulator

In this paper, an optimal design of linear antenna arrays having microstrip patch antenna elements has been carried out. Cat swarm optimization (CSO) has been applied for the optimization of the control parameters of radiation pattern of an antenna array. The optimal radiation patterns of isotropic antenna elements are obtained by optimizing the current excitation weight of each element and the inter-element spacing. The antenna arrays of 12, 16, and 20 elements are taken as examples. The arrays are designed by using MATLAB computation and are validated through Computer Simulation Technology-Microwave Studio (CST-MWS). From the simulation results it is evident that CSO is able to yield the optimal design of linear antenna arrays of patch antenna elements.     

Phase‐only synthesis of planar arrays using autocorrelation matching method

Autocorrelation matching method is proposed for phase‐only synthesis of power pattern of planar antenna arrays. This method is based on equating the autocorrelation coefficients of a planar array having a specified amplitude of excitations to those of a conventionally designed planar array. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by synthesis of pencil‐beam and flat‐top patterns.     

Design of aperiodic planar arrays for isoflux radiation in GEO satellites by applying evolutionary optimization

The design of an aperiodic planar array is presented in this research. This design of aperiodic arrays considers the reduction of the side lobe level and the isoflux radiation requirements for GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) satellite applications. In this way, it is considered four different optimization cases. The first two cases are optimizations of amplitude and phase excitations for the antenna elements in a uniform antenna array and the last two cases are optimizations of positions of the antenna elements and certain number of levels of amplitude excitation in an aperiodic array. In this case, it is proposed a simple new approach combining the main idea of both thinned theory and random arrays approaches. For this optimization problem, the well-known method of Genetic Algorithms (GA) is utilized. The obtained results show the proper performance of the array factor to provide the isoflux radiation and low side lobe level. Depending on the performance requirements, the design of the aperiodic array could lead the satellite hardware to be reduced significantly even more that results presented previously in the literature.     

Near optimal conformal antenna array structure for direction‐of‐arrival estimation

This article determines the near optimal conformal antenna array structure for direction‐of‐arrival (DOA) estimation through a comprehensive study on the planar and usual conformal antenna arrays including the cylindrical and hemispherical by using the directive antenna elements in all designs. To model the hemispherical structure, an improved multi‐face antenna array with three different tilts is proposed and compared with previous works in order to investigate the tilt effect and obtain the conclusive results. The Cramer‐Rao lower bound, multiple signal classification, and root‐mean‐square error algorithms are utilized to evaluate the estimation accuracy of all conformal structures. Finally, by comparing the estimation precision of all conformal structures it is shown that the purposed multi‐face structure as the hemispherical model has a better performance than other conformal structures in terms of the maximum angular coverage of the spatial resource. Moreover, the proposed study method in this article fully examines the impacts of the different conformal antennas geometric structure on the DOA estimation performance by involving the directive antennas radiation patterns.     

Application of wiggly ridge waveguide for design of linear array antennas of centered longitudinal shunt slot

A suitable radiating element for design of linear arrays of centered longitudinal shunt slot is proposed, which allows it to largely suppress the second order beams. The proposed radiating slot consists of a centered longitudinal slot, which is cut in the broad wall of a single wiggly ridge waveguide. The wiggly ridge is placed exactly under the slot and the wiggly part is in V‐shape. It is shown that by varying the wiggle depth of the proposed slot, the amount of power coupled to the slot can be adjusted. Some Stegen's like design graphs are obtained for the proposed slot. Then, two linear arrays consist of five and six elements are designed using the obtained graphs and by neglecting the mutual coupling between slots. The arrays have Dolph‐Chebyshev distribution with 20 and 30 dB of side lobe levels. For a better comparison between the proposed slotted arrays and the conventional longitudinal shunt slot arrays, two other slotted arrays in conventional topology and with the same specifications following the well known Elliott's design procedure are designed and simulated. Comparison of the simulated results shows that the second order beams of the designed array are effectively eliminated, while the other antenna specifications are also achieved. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2009.     

Orthonormal method for compact Global Navigation Satellite Systems antenna array designs

Compact antenna arrays require special considerations at design time not to degrade its efficiency and also the spatial diversity becomes reduced in terms of phase resolution as distance diminishes. Additionally, element radiation patterns are affected and the objective of equally behaved antennas is even more difficult to achieve. However, the induced antenna gain differences can actually be helpful because they can be used to maintain the degrees of freedom in array radiation pattern subspace. In this article, a general analysis on the relationship of efficiency and beam patterns are reviewed to prove that maximum efficiency is achieved when radiation patterns fulfill a given orthogonality condition. Under this condition, we propose to apply a unitary matrix transformation to the array response that can translate the compact antenna array behavior into the equivalent response of a $\frac{\lambda }{2}$‐spaced ideal antenna array without modifying its total efficiency. Consequently, an useful compact antenna array should be designed to have orthogonal radiation beams. Then, applying the transformation, they can be translated to another orthogonal radiation patterns set with only phase differences and a common gain pattern. Simulated results of a computer‐aided design of a practical array of Global Navigation Satellite Systems microstrip antennas are presented.     

Serial‐fed linear frequency diverse arrays for obtaining direction of arrival (DOA) of frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW) sources with ambiguity reduction

Possibility of exploiting serial‐fed linear arrays for obtaining the direction of arrival (DOA) of frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW) sources is discussed in this article. The angle of incident wave is assumed to be in the range, [?90°, 90°] , with ambiguity reduction compared with the previous work. At first, the serial‐fed arrays are assumed as a transmitter with triangular FMCW sources, composing modified frequency diverse arrays. An explicit angle dependency is obtained on the separations between the maximums of the produced spatial power pattern in a design procedure. The approach is generalized for modified sawtooth frequency modulated continuous waveform (SFMCW) sources, which are combinations of two SFMCW sources with two different slopes of frequency shifts. In addition, a measurement setup is implied assuming the serial‐fed array as the receiver and an antenna with a known FMCW source and an unknown DOA as the transmitter. The DOA will be obtained from the separations between maxima of the received signals. Advantages of the proposed structure are the simplicity of antenna structure, ability of operation with narrowband antenna elements, and ambiguity reduction compared with the previous work.     

Bees algorithm for design of dual‐beam linear antenna arrays with digital attenuators and digital phase shifters

This article describes a method of designing a reconfigurable dual‐beam linear antenna array using bees algorithm (BA). The BA is an optimization algorithm inspired by the behavior of the honey bees to find the optimal way of harvesting food resources around the hive. The proposed method is very simple and can be used directly in practice to synthesize multiple beam antenna arrays with digital attenuators and digital phase shifters. A good agreement between the desired pattern and the synthesized pattern using BA is obtained. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

Antipodal tapered slot antenna array using broadband decoupling structure for mutual coupling reduction

In this article, an effective method to reduce the mutual coupling between the antipodal tapered slot antenna (ATSA) array is proposed. This method is mainly implemented by loading a set of decoupling structures (DS) perpendicular to the dielectric substrate between two antenna elements. The proposed DS can provide transmission forbidden band which can effectively prevent leaked electromagnetic waves. DS can operate in most frequency bands within 4 to 17.5 GHz. It can enhance about 23 dB isolation between the ATSA array without affecting bandwidth and radiation characteristics. The proposed ATSA arrays are fabricated and tested. The measured results can verify its excellent properties. The proposed broadband decoupling method is a suitable candidate for restrain mutual coupling of ultra‐wideband planar end‐fire antennas. This design sheds new light on broadband decoupling.     

A high‐gain dual‐band directional/omnidirectional reconfigurable antenna for WLAN systems

A high‐gain dual‐band antenna for the wireless local area network system is presented in this article. Two symmetrical linear arrays can be dynamically reconfigured that could switch radiation pattern with a switchable feed circuit between direction and omnidirection. The antenna can also be used for a pattern diversity antenna for the multiple‐input–multiple‐output communication systems. The design process for the antenna system is given, and the parameters and characteristics of the antennas are achieved by the method. Measured return losses, isolation, and radiation patterns are in good agreement with the simulated ones, which illustrates that the method is valid and the antenna system can be integrated with pattern reconfigurable and pattern diversity applications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2008.     

Pattern synthesize of a cylindrical conformal array antenna by PSO algorithm

Pattern synthesize of conformal array antennas is often a challenging problem. Various optimization algorithms such as genetic, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and invasive weed optimization have already been used for pattern synthesizing of conformal arrays. In this paper, a focused beam is synthesized for a quarter cylindrical conformal array antenna using the PSO algorithm with small computations. The desired pattern is a focused beam at θ = 90° and ? = 45° with 10° beamwidth in elevation and 15° beamwidth in azimuth with ?20 dB side‐lobe level. This method can be used in general for synthesizing arbitrary desired patterns and array geometries.     

具有频率不变波束图的非均匀线列宽带基阵设计

提出一种宽带基阵设计方法，可以在期望的带宽内保持基阵的波束图不随频率变化。该方法利用现有的窄带基阵设计方法得到参考频率下的基阵加权矢量，然后用解析或自适应的方法计算宽带基阵所需的其他频点处的加权矢量。本文还推导了非均匀线列阵阵元位置的表达式。最后，给出了一个设计实例，它可以在十个倍频程内保持波束图基本相同。本文方法对阵元的指向性也没有任何限制，因此具有重要的工程应用价值。     

Circularly polarized 4 × 8 stacked patch antenna phased array with enhanced bandwidth for commercial drones

This paper demonstrates the design procedure of a 4 × 8 phased array antenna. Initially, a unit element in multilayer topology with orthogonal slots in the ground plane to couple electromagnetic energy is designed. Then, a stacked patch with truncated edges is placed on the top thick substrate layer to enhance the bandwidth to 600 MHz. This multilayered stacked patch unit element is then used to design a 1 × 4 and 4 × 8 slot coupled stacked patch array. On the bottom side, a novel feedline structure is designed to provide a 90 ^o phase difference at the antenna feed for the circular polarization. The phase difference is achieved in the feedline structure using a quarter wavelength ( λ_g/4 ) difference in the lengths. After the numerical validation, both 1 × 4 and 4 × 8 stacked patch antenna arrays are fabricated to validate the simulations. The final 4 × 8 array achieved the target specification of an active reflection of less than ?10 dB over 2.4 to 3.0 GHz, axial ratio of less than 3 dB, and stable radiation pattern over the complete band. In addition, beam scanning characteristics of the proposed stacked patch antenna arrays are also verified. The prototype resulted a peak gain of 19.5 dB at 2.7 GHz, 3‐dB beamwidth around 12 ^o in the xz‐plane, and scanning range of 90 ^o . Overall, good agreement between measured and simulated results showed that the proposed designed array capable of providing 600 MHz is an excellent candidate for the radar communication, small commercial drones, and synthetic aperture radar applications.     

Fast simulation‐driven optimization of planar microstrip antenna arrays using surrogate superposition models

A technique for simulation‐driven design of excitation tapers for planar antenna arrays is presented. Our methodology exploits antenna array models constructed as a superposition of simulated radiation and reflection responses of the array under design, with only one radiator active at a time. Low computational costs of these models are ensured by using iteratively corrected electromagnetic‐simulation data computed with coarse meshes. Our technique allows for simultaneous control of the radiation pattern and the reflection coefficients of the array. Numerical efficiency as well as scalability of the technique is demonstrated using the design examples of various sizes and topologies, including a sixteen element and hundred element microstrip patch antenna arrays of the Cartesian lattice and a hundred element microstrip antenna array of the hexagonal lattice. The proposed technique is versatile as it also can be applied for simulation‐based optimization of antenna arrays comprising other types of individually fed elements, e.g., wires, strips, or dielectric resonator antennas. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:371–381, 2015.     

四元声传感器面阵快速测向算法及误差分析

为了对低速移动的声源目标进行较高实时性的方向跟踪,把四元声传感器面阵分为两个二元线阵,分别对目标进行测向,然后融合两组测量结果,给出了目标方位角的计算公式.根据线阵在被跟踪目标方位角不同时测向精度的不同,用加权因子增加较高精度的线阵测量结果的影响,降低误差较大的线阵测量结果的影响.该算法可对传感器阵列所在平面内任意方位的声源快速进行测向,完成一次测向只需对两对时间采样序列分别进行互相关运算,并可获得较高的定向精度,通过实验验证了该算法的精度和有效性.