Performance of Vivaldi Antennas in Reflector Feed Applications
Keywords:
Astigmatism, axial defocusing, phase error loss, reflector feed, ultra wide band, Vivaldi antennaAbstract
When a wideband antenna is to be used as a reflector feed, the phase center variation with frequency introduces an error on the phase of the primary field impinging on the reflector surface. This is because the antenna phase center will be coincident with the focus only at one particular frequency and displacement at other frequencies, which will result as the phase error losses due to axial defocusing. Tapered slot antennas are the most utilized antennas in ultra wide band (UWB) high-performance applications. In this work, performance of the UWB Vivaldi antennas (exponentially tapered slot antennas) in reflector feed applications is investigated. A long Vivaldi is designed, manufactured, and its phase center movement with frequency is measured. The correspondent phase error loss is estimated.
Downloads
References
U. Schwarz, F. Thiel, F. Seifert, R. Stephan, and M. A. Hein, “Ultrawideband antennas for magnetic resonance imaging navigator techniques,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 2107-2112, June 2010.
N. Chahat, M. Zhadobov, R. Sauleau, and K. Ito, “A compact UWB antenna for on-body applications,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 1123-1131, April 2011.
A. Ardenne, B. Smolders, and G. Hampson, “Active adaptive antennas for radio astronomy; results of the initial R&D program toward the square kilometer array,” Proceedings SPIE Conference 4015 Radio Telescope, Munich, Germany, 2000.
D. H. Schaubert, A. Ardenne, and C. Craeye, “The square kilometer array (SKA) antenna,” IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems and Technology, MA, USA, 2003.
P. Hall, The Square Kilometer Array: An Engineering Perspective, Springer, 2005.
C. Carilli and S. Rawlings, Science with the Square Kilometre Array, Elsevier, December 2004.
J. Weem, Z. Popovic, and B. Notaros, “Vivaldi antenna arrays for SKA,” IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, Utah, USA, 2000.
P. Gibson, “The Vivaldi aerial,” Proc. of 9th European Microwave Conference, pp. 101-105, 1979.
T. Namas and M. Hasanovic, “Ultrawideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna for road surface scanner based on inverse scattering,” 28th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES), pp. 882-887, Columbus, Ohio, April 2012.
E. Pancera, Strategies for Time Domain Characterization of UWB Components and Systems, Dissertation in Universität Karlsruhe (TH) Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Germany, 2009.
A. Mehdipour, K. Mohammadpour-Aghdam, and R. Faraji-Dana, “Complete dispersion analysis of Vivaldi antenna for ultra wideband applications,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research, vol. 77, pp. 85-96, 2007.
E. Pancera, T. Zwick, and W. Wiesbeck, “Spherical fidelity patterns of UWB antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 59, pp. 2111-2119, 2011.
P. Li and L. Jiang, “The far field transformation for the antenna modeling based on spherical electric field measurements,” Progress In Electromagnetics Research, vol. 123, pp. 243-261, 2012.
Q. Wu, B. Jin, L. Bian, Y. Wu, and L. Li, “An approach to the determination of the phase center of Vivaldi-based UWB antenna,” Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag. Society Int. Symp., Albuquerque, USA, 2006.
H. Schantz, “Dispersion and UWB antennas,” Int. Workshop on UWB System Joint with Conf. on UWB Syst. and Tech., Huntsville, USA, 2004.
C. Zhao, “Analysis on the properties of a coupled planar dipole UWB antenna,” IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 3, pp. 317-320, 2004.
H. Moheb, A. Sebak, and L. Shafai, “Phase centre analysis of array antennas and its significance for microwave landing system,” IEE Conference on Antennas and Propagation, York, UK, 1991.
K. Jadoon, S. Lambot, E. Slob, and H. Vereecken, “Analysis of horn antenna transfer functions and phase-center position for modeling off-ground GPR,” IEEE Trans. Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 49, pp. 1649-1662, 2011.
L. Li, J. Zhang, and X. Li, “Theoretical calculation and simulation of phase center of a radial line helical array antenna,” Int. Conf. on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Tech., Chengdu, China, 2010.
M. Manteghi and Y. Rahmat-Samii, “Improved feeding structures to enhance the performance of the reflector impulse radiating antenna (IRA)” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 823-834, 2006.
T. A. Milligan, Modern Antenna Design, WileyIEEE Press, 2005.
The homepage of CST Microwave Studio http://www.cst.com/
K. Lee, C. Chen, and R. Lee, “UWB dual-linear polarization dielectric horn antennas as reflector feeds,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 55, pp. 798-804, 2007.