Design of Slotted Waveguide Array Antenna

Fed by H-Plane Power Divider

Priyanka Natani(1),Shikha Kapoor(1), Chinmoy Saha(1), Sravan Kumar(2)
(1)
Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology, India
Department of Avionics, Thiruvananthapuram-695547, India
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
(2)
Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, India
[email protected]

Abstract: In this paper, design of a 4 x 4 slotted waveguide array splitting the power for proper distribution to the elements and
fed by 1:4 equal power divider at centre frequency of 12.3 GHz is feeding the elements in proper phase.
proposed and analysed using High Frequency Structure
Simulator (HFSS). First, a single waveguide with broad wall A longitudinal slot cut into the wall of a waveguide
longitudinal shunt slots displaced from the centre line is interrupts the transverse current flowing in the wall, forcing
optimally designed with low return loss and also slot impedance
the current to travel around the slot, which induces an electric
is matched with the impedance of the waveguide. This result is
successfully extended to design a 4 x 4 slotted waveguide array. A field in the slot. The position and orientation of the slot in the
single Tee junction is modelled. The design is optimized using a waveguide determines the current flow. Thus, the position and
septum and the input port is matched with the help of inductive orientation determines the impedance presented to the
windows (iris). An end feed system is designed by cascading Tee transmission line and the amount of energy coupled to the slot
junctions. The slotted waveguide array is fed by this end feed and radiated from the slot. A slot in the exact centre of the
system. Slotted waveguide array and end feed system are broad wall of the waveguide cannot radiate at all, since the
analysed separately. Their combination results in an efficient electric field is symmetrical around the centre of the guide and
highly directive broadside antenna. thus is identical at both edges of the slot. As the slot is
positioned away from the centreline, the difference in field
Keywords: Slotted Waveguide Array, H-Plane Power Divider, intensity between the edges of the slot is larger, so that more
WR75 current is interrupted and more energy is coupled to the slot,
increasing the radiated power. As we approach the sides of the
I. INTRODUCTION waveguide, the field is very small (since the sidewalls are
short circuits for the electric field) resulting in very weak
Waveguide fed slot array antenna has emerged as a popular induced current. Thus longitudinal slots far away from the
candidate in radar applications, remote sensing, navigation centre of the waveguide or in the sidewall will not radiate
and many other high frequency communication applications significantly. This demands an optimal positioning of the slots
[1]. Because of the integration of the feed system and slightly offset from the centre of the guide conceived in the
radiating elements they are low loss, exhibiting high values of proposed paper.
radiation efficiency. They radiate linear polarization with
reduced cross-polarization. The basic radiation mechanism for In the proposed slotted waveguide array we have
such antennas is very simple: a hole appropriately cut in the used end feed configuration to feed the array. It gives rise to
wall of a waveguide leaks some of the guided energy narrow frequency bandwidth. It consists of T-junctions which
contributing to the outer space radiation. If the slot is a half divides the total input power into all the radiating waveguides
wavelength one and properly positioned on the waveguide with slots in its wall in alternating phase. The paper has been
wall, the impedance is well matched and optimum radiation organised in the following manner, the section II deals with
pattern can be achieved. Further, multiple slots may be cut in the design of the linear array, the section III deals with the
a waveguide to form a linear array of slots. Two dimensional design of the H-plane power divider, section IV deals with the
planar arrays can also be formed by arranging two such linear planar array design and the section V represent the directivity
arrays in two orthogonal directions. By optimal choice of the of the planar antenna. In section we present the design
number of slots in linear and or planar arrays, phase procedure and the simulated results of the corresponding
excitation, positions and size one can control the critical section. The commercially available 3D electromagnetic
antenna parameters like main radiation beam, side lobe level, solver HFSS [2] is used to simulation.
front to back ratio, bandwidth and choose an optimal design
depending on the desired requirement. Design of a slotted
waveguide array antenna involves a number of details: cutting
the elements to resonance, spacing the elements properly,
 II. DESIGN OF LINEAR ARRAY TABLE I
DESIGN PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
Figure 1 shows the top view of the design in which four
longitudinal shunt slots are kept on either side of the X-Ku band
Frequency Limits (GHz)
(10.0 to 15.0)
centerline. Since, broad wall longitudinal shunt slot appears as
Waveguide Standard WR-75
a shunt load in a waveguide [3], the input admittance that Dimensions (mm) (19.05 x 9.525)
appears at the port is net admittance of the 4 slots. The slots
a (broader dimension of w/g) 19.05mm
are fed in phase by spacing their centres at electrical half-
wavelength intervals along the waveguide. The electrical b (height of w/g) 9.525mm
wavelength in waveguide is longer than in free space, so we λc =2a 38.1mm
must calculate the guide wavelength:
λo=c/f 24.3mm

λ = 1 λg 31.74mm
1 1
−
λ λ

where λC, is the cutoff wavelength, which is twice the wider

dimension of the waveguide. Spacing the slots at ½λg intervals
in the waveguide is an equivalent to an electrical spacing of
180o - each slot is exactly out of phase with its neighbours, so
their radiation will cancel each other [4]. However, slots on
opposite sides of the centreline of the guide will be out of
phase (180o), so we can alternately switch the slot
displacement around the centreline and have a total phase
difference of 360obetween slots, putting them back in phase.

The centre of the last slot is the guide quarter-

wavelength from the closed end of the waveguide. The
resonant slot length in our antenna is half of the free space
wavelength whereas slot width is one twentieth of free space
wavelength. Excitation port is placed at the end opposite to
the shorter end of waveguide. The details of the design
Figure 2: Return Loss of the linear array antenna
parameter of the waveguide, slot dimensions and their
positions are summarized in TABLE 1.
III. DESIGN OF H-PLANE POWER DIVIDER

A. SINGLE H-PLANE Tee:

High Frequency Structural Simulator is used to design
single T-junction i.e. three port equal power divider. Septum
parameters are obtained by proper optimization and repeated
simulation resulting in converged solution. Through repeated
iteration and optimization we could achieve the desired equal
power values (-3dB) at the output ports and good input match
over the operation frequency.

Figure 1: Top view of the linear array schematic A three port equal power divider is designed with
inductive windows to match the impedance at the input port
and a septum to direct power and reduce reflections at the
input port. It was observed that the side to which septum is
The proposed linear array antenna was designed and
moved gets less power than the opposite side. In order to
simulated in a commercial available electromagnetic solver make the real part of normalized impedance 1, the septum
and return loss obtained is shown in Fig. 2 which is as low as parameters were optimized and to nullify the imaginary part
-42.92dB at the resonance frequency. inductive windows were introduced.
 structure of a 1:4-way divider. T-junctions are spaced by half
the guide wavelength in the feed waveguide. The window 1 is
a matching T-junction which is a kind of reflectionless H-
bend. In windows 2 to 5 the amplitude and the phase of the
coupled power is controlled by the window width and
position. Again septums are used to direct power and reduce
reflections at the input port. Wave in the outer two ports
travels a+t (20.05mm) distance more in comparison to inner
two ports which offers a phase difference of 227.41 degrees.
Also bends, septum and width of the window affect the phase.
Due to the combined effect the power in the outer two ports is
out of phase with respect to the inner two ports.
Figure 3: Schematic of the Tee Junction

The design was simulated in HFSS and obtained return

loss is shown in Fig. 4 which is -44.89dB which indicates
good impedance matching resulting in very less reflection at
the input port. Fig. 5 shows coupled power in ports 2 and 3
which is almost -3 dB in both port indicating that power is
equally divided amongst the two output ports.

ReturnLoss
-10

-15

-20
ReturnLoss(dB)

-25
Figure 6: Schematic representing the cross-section of 1:4 power divider
-30

-35

-40
X: 12.34
Y: -43.31
The design was simulated in HFSS and obtained return loss as
-45
11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 shown in Fig. 7, is -44.89dB at our frequency of interest
Frequency(GHz)
which is indicative of good impedance matching and very less
Figure 4: Return loss of a single Tee Junction reflection at the input port. The post resonance is not perfect,
CoupledPower
it is of less concerned in present case for the antenna
-1
applications (It will important rather for filter applications).
-1.5 Figure 8 shows coupled power into the ports 2, 3, 4 and 5
-2 which is almost -6 dB in all the port indicating that power is
Coupled Power(dB)

-2.5 equally divided among all the output ports.

X: 12.3
Y: -3.006
-3
X: 12.3
Y: -3.016

-3.5 ReturnLoss
0
-4

-4.5 -10

-5
ReturnLoss(dB)

11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 -20

Frequency(GHz)

-30
Figure 5: Coupled power to port 2 and port 3
-40 X: 12.3
Y: -44.89

-50
B. 1:4 H-PLANE POWER DIVIDER 11 11.2 11.4 11.6 11.8 12 12.2 12.4 12.6 12.8 13
Frequency(GHz)

Now, a procedure to design a multiple-way power

divider using T-junctions is presented [5] [6]. Fig. 6 shows the Figure 7: Return loss of 1:4 power divider
 CoupledPower
ReturnLoss
-5 0
X: 12.3 X: 12.32
Y: -5.994 Y: -6.003

-5
-10
CoupledPower(dB)

-10

ReturnLoss(dB)
-15
-15
-20

-20 -25

-30

-25 -35
11 11.2 11.4 11.6 11.8 12 12.2 12.4 12.6 12.8 13 X: 12.3
Y: -38.41
Frequency(GHz)
-40
10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14 14.5 15
Frequency(GHz)
Figure 8: coupled power in the output port of the 1:4 power divider

Figure 10: Return loss of the planar array structure

IV. DESIGN OF PLANAR ARRAY

To design a planar array of 16 elements 4 linear arrays V. DIRECTIVITY OF THE PROPOSED ARRAY
designed in previous section are united [4]. As already
mentioned power in the outer two ports of the power divider is Directivity is the radiated power density in the direction
out of phase with respect to the inner two ports. Therefore to (θ, ϕ) divided by the radiated power density averaged over all
feed the 4x4 array in phase and to get the maximum directions i.e.
directivity at the centre the outer two arrays are taken to be the
4πα(θ , ϕ )α∗ (θ , ϕ )
mirror images of the inner two arrays and then the 4 linear D=
arrays and power divider are united as shown Fig. 9. and ∫ ∫ α(θ , ϕ )α∗ (θ , ϕ ) sin θdθdϕ
simulated in HFSS. Figure 10 shows the simulated return loss
of the combined structure. where α is the array factor as discussed in [1]. In our case of
4x4 uniformly spaced planar array

sin4(kd sin θ cos ϕ) sin4(kd sin θ cos ϕ

α(θ, ϕ) =
sin(kd sin θ cos ϕ sin4(kd sin θ cos ϕ

Using this concept a comparison graph is plotted with

the simulation results and theoretical results which is shown in
Fig. 11. Results obtained from theoretical analysis are well
matched with those obtained from EM simulator.

Comparision of Directivity using Matlab and HFSS

30
X: -0.01587
Y: 22.73
Theoritical
20 HFSS
X: 0
Y: 19.67

10
Directivity(dB)

-10

-20

-30
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Figure 9: Cross-sectional view of the combined structure i.e., both the Theta(Rad)
linear arrays and the power divider to form a planar array
Figure 11: Comparison of directivity at phi = 0o
 during which the work was conceived.

REFERENCES

[1] Robert S. Elliot, Antenna Theory And Design, Rev. ed., New
Jersey,John Wiley & Sons, 2003.
[2] HFSS: High Frequency Structure Simulator, V. 15, Ansoft Corp.
[3] A. A. Oliner, “The Impedence Properties of Narrow Radiating Slots in
the Broad Face of Rectangular Waveguide,” IEEE Trans. on Antennas and
Propagat., pp. 4-20, Jan 1957.
[4] R.S. Elliot and L.A. Kurtz, "The design of small slot arrays", IEEE
Trans.on Antenna Propagat., vol. 26, pp. 214-219, Mar. 1978
[5] Sehyun Park, Yasuhiro Tsunemitsu, JiroHirokawa, and Makoto Ando,
“Center Feed Single Layer Slotted Waveguide Array” IEEE Trans. Antenna
Propagat., vol. 54,no. 5, pp. 1474-1480, May 2006.
Figure 12: E-Plane polar pattern [6] Daisuke Arai, Miao Zhang, Kimio Sakurai, JiroHirokawa, and Makoto
Ando, “Obliquely Arranged Feed Waveguide for Alternating-Phase Fed
Single-Layer Slotted Waveguide Array,” IEEE Trans. Antenna Propagat.,
vol. 53,no. 2, pp. 594-600, Feb. 2005.

Figure 13: Three dimensional radiation pattern of the array

Figure 12 and 13 shows the E-plane radiation pattern of the

proposed array showing highly directional nature in elevation
plane and omnidirectionality in azimuth plane. The simulated
HPBW is 170 implying that the antenna is very much
directive. The antenna exhibits a cross-pole suppression of
43.969 dB over co-polar radiation.

CONCLUSION

A rectangular waveguide based slotted array antenna along

with complete power divider driven feeding network is
designed and simulated. The array is customized at centre
frequency of 12.3 GHz with an impedance bandwidth of
949.4 MHz. A very good return loss of -38.1307 dB is
obtained. Achieved gain of the overall system is 18.264 dB.
Difference in the directivity of co-polarization and cross-
polarization is 43.969 dB.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We extend our gratitude to Dr. K. S. Dasgupta, Director IIST

for providing the opportunity to work at Space Application
Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, India for our summer internship