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At least 253 records · Page 14

Coplanar-waveguide/microstrip probe coupler and applications to antennas

A method to couple microwave power from a coplanar waveguide to a microstrip line on opposite sides of a ground plane is demonstrated. The coupler uses a metallic post which passes through an aperture on the ground plane connecting the strip conductor of the coplanar waveguide to the microstrip line. The measured insertion loss and return loss are about 1 dB and 10 dB, respectively, across the frequency range of 0.045-6.5 GHz. To demonstrate potential applications of the coupler as a feeding network for a microstrip patch array, measured radiation patterns of two rectangular patch antennas with a direct coplanar-waveguide/microstrip feed and with a proximity coupled coplanar-waveguide/microstrip feed are presented.

Simons, R. N.↗

Airborne antenna pattern calculations

Progress on the development of modeling software, testing software against caclulated data from program VPAP and measured patterns, and calculating roll plane patterns for general aviation aircraft is reported. Major objectives are the continued development of computer software for aircraft modeling and use of this software and program OSUVOL to calculate principal plane and volumetric radiation patterns. The determination of proper placement of antennas on aircraft to meet the requirements of the Microwave Landing System is discussed. An overview of the performed work, and an example of a roll plane model for the Piper PA-31T Cheyenne aircraft and the resulting calculated roll plane radiation pattern are included.

Knerr, T. J.↗

Focusing the parabolic antenna

The focused parabolic antenna has far field pattern characteristics in the radiating near field region. Therefore, it can provide fine resolutions in the across range dimensions. The technique of focusing the parabolic antenna is discussed and applied to a 2-1/2 foot parabolic antenna at X-band. The results of the pattern measurements at various ranges from 2.8 m to 5 m are provided.

Wu, L. K.↗

Scanning and Defocusing Properties of Microstrip Reflectarray Antennas

A symmetric reflectarray, consisting of variable-size square patch elements with a commonly used mathematical model for the horn in the form of a cosine function, has been designed using the transmit mode technique for different f/D ratios with 10 dB edge taper. Subsequently, the antennas were analyzed for the radiation pattern and gain. The infinite array model was used to determine the reflection phase of each patch element in the design and analysis codes. By displacing the feed laterally, the scan characteristics were obtained, such as the beam deviation factor, gain loss, and pattern degradation. The properties of reflect arrays were compared to those of the conventional paraboloidal reflectors. The same procedure was used to study the scan properties of offset reflectarrays. There is no cross-polarized radiation in the principal planes for a symmetric system. Cross-polarized radiation exists in non-principal planes off broadside in symmetric systems, with greater levels for larger values of subtended angles. Such cross-polarized radiation level increases with subtended angle just as cross-polarization level increases with decreasing values of f/D ratios for symmetric paraboloids in non-principal planes. Pattern distortions and gain loss were found to be more severe in the case of a microstrip reflectarray compared to the conventional parabolic reflector. The scan performance of the reflect arrays was found to improve with f/D ratios as is true for paraboloids. In general, scanning by means of displaced feed is limited to a few beam - widths in reflectarrays. Feed displacement in the axial direction of a symmetric reflectarray was investigated and compared to that of paraboloids. The gain loss due to the defocused feed of a reflectarray was found to be nearly the same as that of a paraboloid of the same subtended angle for larger values of f/D, and for displacements away from the antenna. The gain loss of an axially defocused reflectarray was found to be greater than that of a paraboloid for displacements closer to the antenna, especially for smaller values of f/D. In general, the performance of a defocused reflectarray was found to be poorer than that of a comparable paraboloid reflector.

Rengarajan, Sembiam↗

High performance S-band horn antennas for radiometer use

Horn antennas of four types: pyramidal corrugated, conical corrugated, pyramidal dual mode and conical dual mode, have been constructed and evaluated for use as S-band radiometer antennas. Each of the structures is described and radiation patterns and impedance and resistive loss measurements including a layer of foreign material on a thin radome, are presented. A precision method for determining reflection losses is described using a multiprobe reflectometer technique. The same technique is also applied to the measurement of resistive losses by closing the ends of the antennas with short circuit plates and determining the losses from an accurate measurement of the reflection coefficient. The radiation patterns were recorded with the aid of a real-time digital computer. The stored patterns were then processed to yield gain and beam efficiency. It was concluded that it is possible to design a highly efficient antenna for radiometer use and to measure its parameters precisely. However, it was found that it is necessary to modify the conventional definition of beamwidth somewhat if this term is to be meaningful for radiometer applications.

Caldecott, R.↗

Sinusoidal reaction formulation for radiation and scattering from conducting surfaces

A piecewise-sinusoidal reaction technique is developed for scattering and radiation from perfectly conducting bodies of arbitrary shape. The theory and numerical results for scattering patterns of rectangular plates and radiation patterns of corner-reflector antennas are presented. Experimental measurements are included for comparison with the calculated data.

Richmond, J. H.↗

Sinusoidal reaction formulation for radiation and scattering from conducting surfaces

A piecewise-sinusoidal reaction technique is proposed for the study of scattering and radiation from perfectly conducting bodies of arbitrary shape. The reaction technique described is a moment method based on the integral equation of an electric field. A theory of sinusoidal reaction formulation for radiation and scattering problems is outlined, in which the scattered field is obtained by integrating the surface currents. Numerical results are presented for the scattering patterns of rectangular plates and corner reflectors and the radiation patterns of corner-reflector antennas.

Wang, N. N.↗

Theoretical analyses on Apollo lunar surface electrical properties experiment transmitter antenna.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of the transmitter antenna of lunar surface electrical properties experiment. It is desirable to evaluate the current distribution, far-field radiation pattern and input impedance of the transmitter antenna in order to determine the electromagnetic sounding effects from the lunar subsurface. The analysis is based on the treatise of the long wire antenna with passive loadings. Both cases of the antenna placed in free space and in a dissipative medium are taken into consideration.-

Yu, I.-P.↗

Feasibility Study of Optically Transparent Microstrip Patch Antenna

The paper presents a feasibility study on optically transparent patch antennas with microstrip line and probe feeds. The two antennas operate at 2.3 GHz and 19.5 GHz respectively. They are constructed from a thin sheet of clear polyester with an AgHT-8 optically transparent conductive coating. The experimental results show good radiation patterns and input impedance match. The antennas have potential applications in mobile wireless communications.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

Feasibility Study of Optically Transparent Microstrip Patch Antenna

The paper presents a feasibility study on optically transparent patch antennas with microstrip line and probe feeds. The two antennas operate at 2.3 GHz and 19.5 GHz respectively. They are constructed from a thin sheet of clear polyester with an AgHT-8 optically transparent conductive coating. The experimental results show good radiation patterns and input impedance match. The antennas have potential applications in mobile wireless communications.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

Telecommunications Antennas for the Juno Mission to Jupiter

The Juno Mission to Jupiter requires a full sphere of coverage throughout its cruise to and mission at Jupiter. This coverage is accommodated through the use of five (5) antennas; forward facing low gain, medium gain, and high gain antennas, and an aft facing low gain antenna along with an aft mounted low gain antenna with a torus shaped antenna pattern. Three of the antennas (the forward low and medium gain antennas) are classical designs that have been employed on several prior NASA missions. Two of the antennas employ new technology developed to meet the Juno mission requirements. The new technology developed for the low gain with torus shaped radiation pattern represents a significant evolution of the bicone antenna. The high gain antenna employs a specialized surface shaping designed to broaden the antenna's main beam at Ka-band to ease the requirements on the spacecraft's attitude control system.

Vacchione, Joseph D.↗

Case study of sample spacing in planar near-field measurement of high gain antennas

Far field antenna patterns can be reconstructed from planar near field measurements acquired at a sample spacing of lambda/2 or less. For electrically large antennas, sampling at the Nyquist rate may result in errors due to system electronic drift over long acquisition times. The computer capacity may limit the largest size of the near field data set. The requirement to sample at the Nyquist rate is relaxed for high gain antennas which concentrate most of the radiated energy into a small angular region of the far field. The criteria for sample spacing at greater than lambda/e through the use of a priori information of the antenna radiation characteristics are presented. Far field patterns of a 30 GHz dual offset reflector system with a 2.7 m parabolic main reflector are computed from near field data obtained at sample spacings ranging from 0.1 lambda to 10 lambda. The effects of sampling interval and spectrum cutoff on the far field patterns are discussed.

Acosta, R. J.↗

Effect of a Dielectric Overlay on a Linearly Tapered Slot Antenna Excited by a Coplanar Waveguide

The effect of a dielectric overlay on a linearly tapered slot antenna (LTSA) is studied. The LTSA under study has very wide bandwidth and excellent radiation patterns. A dielectric overlay improves the patterns and directivity of the antenna by increasing the electrical length and effective aperture of the antenna. A dielectric overlay can also be used to reduce the physical length of the antenna without compromising the pattern quality.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

Millimeter-wave and terahertz integrated circuit antennas

This paper presents a comprehensive review of integrated circuit antennas suitable for millimeter and terahertz applications. A great deal of research was done on integrated circuit antennas in the last decade and many of the problems associated with electrically thick dielectric substrates, such as substrate modes and poor radiation patterns, have been understood and solved. Several new antennas, such as the integrated horn antenna, the dielectric-filled parabola, the Fresnel plate antenna, the dual-slot antenna, and the log-periodic and spiral antennas on extended hemispherical lenses, have resulted in excellent performance at millimeter-wave frequencies, and are covered in detail in this paper. Also, a review of the efficiency definitions used with planar antennas is given in detail in the appendix.

Rebeiz, Gabriel M.↗

A Compact Dual-Band Bowtie Antenna for RF and ISM bands Operation

Traditionally, bowtie antennas have been known to exhibit wide impedance characteristics, omnidirectional radiation patterns, and linear polarization. There is a broad range of applications from medical imaging, archaeological survey, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to trackers and sensor networks where wideband bowtie antenna designs are required for their operations. Broadening the bandwidth of bowtie antenna requires widening the flare angle of the bowtie arms, which consequently results in a large surface area that may not be suitable for space-constrained applications. Moreover, drawback attributes of the wideband bowtie designs feature inconsistent radiation pattern across the bandwidth and low signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios. As it is known, the SNR would be improved in dual- or multi-band antennas due to their reduced bandwidth. To this end, dual-band/multi-band antennas are preferred over wideband antennas in applications where more than a single frequency of interest is present. Previously, a two-port double-dipole elements was reported, whose arms were orthogonally interleaved to facilitate operation in both the standard WLAN frequency bands (J. M. Steyn and et. al, Progress in Electromagnetic Research, Vol. – 10 pp. 151-161). Even though the antenna is not very compact it does exhibit good cross-polarization, moderate gain in both frequency bands. Another dual-band bowtie antenna which excites two bands using a single transmission line was reported (Wen Chao Zheng and et. al, IEEE Trans. Antennas propag., 2014). The design was compact and did not need multi-port feeding network. In this paper, a dual-band compact bowtie antenna operating at 900 MHz (RF band) and 2.45 GHz (ISM band) using a single excitation port is introduced. It is printed on a 1.54mm thick dielectric substrate (εr = 3.38). The antenna consists of two sets of bowtie arms, a microstrip transmission line to feed the bowtie arms, and a ground plane acting as a reflector to partially reduce the back radiation. One of the bowtie arms of each frequency is printed on the top layer and the other arm, which is mirror imaged, is printed on the bottom layer of the substrate. The length of the bowtie controls the resonance frequency of the antenna and the flare angle controls the bandwidth of the antenna. The microstrip transmission line, connected to a 50 Ω SMA probe, feeds the bowtie antenna. The compact antenna can be used for both RF and ISM band applications. The bowtie arms at the lower frequency band are miniaturized by elongating their electrical lengths. The influence of miniaturizing the bowtie arms and the supporting partial ground plane is observed in the reduced peak gain and degraded front-to-back ratio. These are partly neutralized using four quarter-wave choke-slots in the ground plane with two on each side of the feeding transmission line. The proposed antenna is numerically investigated and finalized by the finite-element based full-wave EM solver, ANSYS HFSS. The miniaturization has reduced the ground plane size by ~45% and the arms size by ~41%. In addition to the size reduction benefits, the antenna shows reasonable peak gain and front-to-back ratio in both the bands. The corresponding results will be presented and discussed at the conference.

Saininad Naik↗