Design of a Near Field Protective Dielectric Radome “Window” for a Curved Phased Array Antenna-Axial Polarization Case

Abstract

A systematic design method of near field dielectric windows for 2D conformal fed arrays was previously developed. This developed design yielded simultaneously well-behaved element patterns in both axial and circumferential polarization. The method includes dimensioning of the window thickness to maximize the radial decay rate of the radome induced surface waves, followed by inclusion of a sufficiently large gap to decouple the surface waves from the array face. This methodology has been successfully extended to 3D with circumferential polarization according to the previously established guidelines and has provided smooth patterns in the circumferential plane, but limited the scan in the axial plane. Here we will investigate the case with axial polarization and compare the available useful scan volume to that of circumferentially polarized excitation.