Antenna Array Performance Diagnostics Using Theory of Collapsed Distributions

Abstract

The wide bandwidth and wide scan volume are the most desirable features for the antenna arrays meant to be utilized to develop phased array antennas for applications such as radars, 5G wireless networks, Satellite On Move (SatOnMov) vehicular applications, MIMO, etc. The various array parameters as directivity, half power beam width (HPBW), sidelobe level (SLL), average inter-element spacing, etc. are required to characterize these arrays and validate their applicability to the chosen application by the designer. The analysis and synthesis of these arrays are sometimes computationally intensive in case of large arrays with arbitrary shapes due to involved analytical expressions or mathematics which are required to be solved to compute the array parameters. This makes design and optimization a tedious procedure. This article proposes a methodology based on the theory of collapsed distributions (TCD) to reduce the computation time drastically and demonstrate few designs of wide scan antenna arrays. The prediction of the effect of the mutual coupling and the onset of grating lobes is made by introducing the concept of mean or average inter-element spacing computed using TCD. A sparse antenna array having superior scan performance in comparison to the conventional regular or dense antenna arrays is designed and demonstrated using TCD.

Keywords:

• Antenna array
• Analysis
• Average Spacing
• Theory of collapsed distributions
• Wide scan volume

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashutosh Kedar

Ashutosh Kedar was born in Delhi, India on July 9, 1973. He received his PhD, MTech, and MSc in 2003, 1998 & 1995, respectively from the Dept. of Electronic Science, DOES, University of Delhi, India. He is currently working as a Radar scientist in LRDE, Bangalore since 2003. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and has a patent to his credit. He serves as a reviewer for various journals like IEEE, IET, PIERS, ACES, IETE, etc. and has chaired various technical sessions at various conferences. He is working on the development of active phased array antennas for various applications at LRDE. He received DRDO technology group award for 1st indigenous active phased array radar and 1st four-walled radar development in the country in 2008 and 2018 and received best paper award in ICMARS and ATMS’18. His research interest includes wide scan low-cost beam forming phased array antennas & radars. He is volunteering for various regional IEEE activities and is currently serving as Secretary, IEEE AP-MTT Joint Chapter, IEEE Bangalore section. He is Senior Member IEEE, AP-S, Life Member ACES and Fellow IETE. Email: [email protected]