Polyomino Shaped Subarrays for Limited Field of View and Time Delay Control of Planar Arrays
Abstract
Phased array elements are often grouped into contiguous rectangular subarrays to reduce cost. This is done for two types of array applications. The first is for arrays that scan over only a limited sector, called limited field of view (LFOV) arrays. These use one phase shifter for each group of elements (subarray), and no phase shifters within the subarray. The second application is for arrays that scan over wide angles and wide frequency bands using time delay at the input to each subarray, and phase shift at every element. Unfortunately, contiguous rectangular subarrays used in these applications have substantial quantization lobes that limit their use to systems without strict sidelobe control. Figure 1 illustrates the use of contiguous rectangular subarrays for the LFOV and time delay applications. In these examples, a microstrip patch array is divided into subarrays that are four elements wide in the x direction, and two elements wide in the y direction. In Figure 1A, the limited field of view example, there are no phase shifters at the elements, and one phase shifter at each of the subarray input ports. This means that the subarray acts like a large element. The configuration shown achieves an 8:1 savings of phase shifters, but suffers reduced gain when the array is scanned. However, since the intention is to scan the array only through a restricted sector, then the reduced pattern gain can be tolerable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 03, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA457570
Entities
People
- R. J. Mailloux
- S. G. Santarelli
- T. M. Roberts
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory