2006 6th International Conference on ITS Telecommunications Proceedings
An Anti-Jamming 5-Element GPS Antenna Array
Using Phase-Only Nulling
Kai Wu, Ling Zhang, Zhongxiang Shen, and Boyu Zheng
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nanyang Technological University
50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798
Abstract-This paper describes a GPS antenna array that is closed-form solution, two nulls can be produced immediately
able to reject jamming signals from two different directions. The once the directions of the jamming signals are identified.
GPS array consists of five antenna elements of equal amplitude
and different phases. The 5-elemet GPS array can produce two
nulls using the phase-only technique. Ceramic substrate of high The remaining parts of the paper are organized as follows.
dielectric constant is used to realize a miniaturized GPS antenna Section II describes the layout of the 5-element GPS antenna
element. Due to the narrow bandwidth of microstrip patch array. Section II derives the required phases for producing two
antennas printed on ceramic substrates, mutual coupling effect nulls in two specified directions. Closed-form expressions for
must be taken into account in the design of the 5-element GPS
array. Closed-form solutions of the required phases to produce the required phases are obtained. Section III presents
two nulls are obtained and given. Simulation results of the GPS simulated results of the GPS antenna element and array using
antenna elements and arrays by Ansoft's HFSS are also Ansoft's HFSS. Conclusions are given in Section IV.
presented and discussed.
I. INTRODUCTION II. DESCRIPTION OF THE GPS ARRAY
Antenna arrays with anti-jamming capability are desirable The geometry of the proposed 5-element GPS antenna array
in GPS applications because of the intentional interference and is shown in Figure. 1. In the proposed antenna array, 4
the increasingly polluted electromagnetic environment [1, 2]. microstrip patch antennas printed on ceramic substrates are
Adaptive nulling is required when the directions of jamming placed uniformly along a circle of radius R2=90mm, which is
about half a free-space wavelength at the center frequency
signals are varying. Antennas using phase-only nulling can 1.575GHz for GPS applications. The fifth element is placed
search the adequate angles for the phase shifters to form nulls right at the centre of the antenna array.
in the directions where interference signal are coming [1, 3].
In many practical applications, it is essential for the nulls to be In order to obtain a compact size and minimize the mutual
formed as quickly as possible. coupling effect, all the 5 patches are printed on square ceramic
substrates with a thickness of t=4mm, a side width a=25mm
Quite a lot of papers have already considered the problem and a relative permittivity c,=19.58. An SMA connector of
of phase-only nulling; most of them use different kinds of characteristic impedance 50ohms is located at a point 2.4 mm
non-linear programming techniques to search the angles, but above the center of each substrate/patch for achieving a good
the iterative procedure is usually very time-consuming, which impedance match. The side length of the square patch is
is not suitable for real-time applications. For example, in [4], L=20.2mm for generating a resonant frequency at 1.575GHz.
five iterations are required to solve the 2J+2 unknowns. Two diagonal corners of each patch are truncated with an
Lundgren and Sanford [5] proposed a closed-form technique, equal side length of AL=1.15mm for generating circular
which saves some time, but also solves the equations polarization. In order to achieve better radiation performances
indirectly. and minimize the mutual coupling effect, all the patches have
the same orientation and placed in the geometry shown in
This paper describes a miniaturized 5-element GPS antenna Fig. 1. All the patches are made of silver and copper is used for
array that is able to form two nulls using the phase-only the ground plate.
technique. By changing the relative phases associated with the
four GPS antenna elements with respect to the central element, It should be mentioned that the above dimensions of the
one is able to produce two nulls at the specified directions. patch size, feed point location and size of the truncation cuts
Unlike many existing phase-only techniques, the required are determined by HFSS simulations. These parameters are
phases can be determined analytically, which is very efficient slightly different from those for a single GPS antenna element
and particularly suitable for real-time applications. Using the because the resonant frequency and axial ratio of the ceramic
0-7803-9586-7/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE. 370
antennas are sensitive to the mutual coupling between adjacent where equal amplitudes for all the five elements are assumed,
elements. (D i is the required phase for the i-th element, and
01=- sin 0 cos(o + 450);
E2 = -
2
AO 2
sin 0cos(0 +1 35°);
(2)
03 = A
sin cos( +45°);
04 = A
sin 0 cos(o + l 5°)
The main task here is to determine the required phases
'' i(i= 1, 2, 3, 4) to form two nulls in the directions
( ,' ) and (0SI, ' XI ). From the geometry of the antenna
array in Fig. 1, the phase delays of the four surrounding
elements with reference to the center element can be denoted
as 0 I (i = 1, 2, 3, 4) for the null direction (0I ' XI ) and
®f' (i = 1, 2, 3, 4 ) for the null direction ( 0II
After some manipulations, the following nulling equations can
be derived from the array factor in (1) after substituting the
two nulling directions into (1).
Feeding
Point Cos (1)l-® ) + Cos (D2 -®)
(3a)
+ Cos (D3 -® ) + Cos (D4 -® ) = -1
sin(I)$ -®)+sin(D2 -®)
(3b)
+ sin (4)3 -O) + sin (D4- ), = 0
d ((t1D ®~)+cs(2
Coscos$1 )H + Cos (@2 -
2®")H (3c)
Figure. 1. Geometry of the 5-element antenna (d=25mm, +Cos ($3 O) + COS (s4 -0H) =-
h=2.4mm, R1=125mm, R2=90mm). -
For the antenna array shown in Fig. 1, four phase shifters are sin ((tl3
OH
+ sin ((t) -oH)
(3 d)
connected with the four surrounding patch antennas. By
+sin($ 3 O® )+ sin(cD4 -® ") = 0
changing the phases of these four elements with respect to that
-
of the center element, the combined signals will normally By inspection, we know that 1¾=-(I3 and 12=-(I4. As a result,
produce two nulls in the directions where jamming signals are equations (3a) to (3d) can be simplified to:
coming. The phases required for producing two nulls can be
(4a)
readily determined using the formulation described in the next cos(~1
( ®')1 +c( 2
2-) 2
section.
Cos($ - + Cos(2-OH) = --
)+( (4b)
III. FORMULATION Using a variable substitution
For the GPS antenna array shown in Fig. 1, we can obtain
the following array factor by taking the center element as the T~
1
= (
1
2
reference (origin of the coordinate system):
4
Et (O,) = Eo (1 + E e(i - O
i) (1) T22 = $D 2 2
2
2
i=l
371
and then solving equations (4a) and (4b), we can obtain the
following solutions
-b+±b2 - 4ac -10I 1\1,
.//
TP1= cos1I( (5a)
-')
2a Srpor tO: por IO m II (rmog)
I I
SrportOm porl rrm ig
sin-,
Srportl:ml porti, ilmagl
T sin Ti sin a) (5b)
~~~~sin ,8
\ / .- Srportl:
..l.. loport
I. 2mil(nmgl
- ..,
2 I t
where
a =(E) - E) 1) / 2 ~~~~i-
,f (E)3
= -
)I3 2) I 2 -35
2 2
a = cos 2a
2 - sin 2 a -40L
1.55
tan2 A Frequency (GHz)
b = cosa
Figure.2. Simulated S-parameter for the proposed GPS array.
sin2 a AR aiphi 7:0
c = 0.25 - cos2 p + tan2 a AR c5l phi z OO
tan 2 '8
Solutions in (5) can be substituted back into equation (4) to
verify their validity and some spurious solutions caused by the
± sign choice can also be discarded during this backward
substitution. It has been observed from extensive simulations m
that there are two sets of solutions for the required phases for
.e
most situations due to the± sign choice and the multiple x
solutions to the inverse cosine and sine functions in (5). It is
very rare to have no solution for practical applications.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
-2.0~.... 15' lCOD -5 0 5D IOD 150 200
The five-element array antenna is designed and simulated
Theta (in degrees)
using Ansoft's HFSS. By changing the size of the patch, one
can adjust the resonant frequency of the patch antenna. The
Figure.3. Simulated axial ratio of the 5-element GPS antenna
array.
size of the truncated corners can be changed for achieving a
good axial ratio. The location of the feeding point away from
the center of the patch is determined for obtaining a good Antenna Directivity Pattern plot at 1575 MHz, surface = abc-surfoce
impedance match to the SMA connector. After some iterations, ADPTolol al phi z D
ADPTolol Di phi = D0
we choose L=20.2mm, AL=1.15mm s=1.9mm for the patch
element used in the 5-element array configuration. Figure 2
shows the simulated return loss of the proposed antenna. The m
resonant frequency is slightly away from 1575 MHz, at which
a -19 dB return loss is achieved.
Figure 3 shows the simulated axial ratio at 00 and 900. The .2
simulated axial ratio of the proposed antenna is about 3.8dB. c?
in
The radiation pattern of the proposed 5-element GPS antenna CC
array is shown in Fig.4, where all the five elements are equally
excited. From the 2D plot of the array's radiation pattern, we
can see that a fairly good circular polarization is achieved. The
difference between the main lobe and the side lobe is more 200 -100 -50 0 50 100 5D
than 15dB, which ensures a good radiation beam of the (degrees)
antenna array.
Figure.4. Simulated radiation pattern of the 5-element GPS
antenna array.
372
As an example to demonstrate the validity of the derived
solutions from the phase-only nulling technique, we consider a
case that there are two interference signals coming from (45°, 5. 2525e+000
30°) and (45°, 150°). The calculated phases for the four
2.6183e+000
21.5959e 002
surrounding elements are k1=-03=-110.14', ID2=-ID4=-110.14'. -2. 6502e+O000
-5. 2844e+000
Figure 5 shows the simulated array factor of the 5-element _7. 9187e+000
-1.0O55Je+001
array when 0=45'. We can clearly see that there are two nulls -1. 3187e+001
I1. 5821e+001
at XI = 3 0 0 and X = 1 5 00 . Figure 6 shows the simulated -1. 6456e+001
3-dimensional radiation pattern of the 5-element GPS antenna
array using the obtained phases by Ansoft's HFSS. It is seen
from Fig. 6 that there are two nulls in two desired directions
(45°, 30W) and (45°, 150°), which verifies the validity of the
nulling algorithm and the designed GPS antenna array.
Measured results of the fabricated 5-element GPS antenna
array using ceramic substrates will be presented at the
conference.
Figure 6 Simulated radiation pattern of the 5-element GPS
antenna array atf 1.575GHz.
REFERENCES
[1] A. Brown, "High accuracy GPS performance using a digital adaptive
antenna array," Proc. Of ION National Technical Meeting, Long Beach,
CA, Jan. 2001.
[2] A. Brown, D. Reynolds, H. W. Tseng and J. Norgard, "Miniaturized GPS
antenna array technology," Proc. Of the ION 55th Annual Meeting,
Cambridge, June 1999.
[3] C. A. Baird and G. G. Rassweiler, "Adaptive sidelobe nulling using
digitally controlled phase-shifters," IEEE Trans. on Antennas and
Propagation, vol. AP-24, no.5, pp.638-649, 1976.
[4] R. A. Shore, "Nulling at symmetric pattern location with phase-only
weight control." IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation, vol. AP-32,
no.5, pp.530-533, May 1984.
[5] S. Lundgren and J. Sanford, "A new technique for phase only nulling
with equispaced arrays," IEEE AP-S Digest, vol.1, pp.447-450, June
1995.
Figure 5 Simulated array factor of the 5-element array (0=45 ). [6] C. Y, Huang, C. M. Chang, and K. L. Wong, "Design of GPS mcirostrip
antenna using nearly square patch," Proc. Of Asia Pacific Microwave
Conference, pp.237-240, 1997.
[7] K. L. Wong, Compact and Broadband Microstrip Antennas, John Wiley &
Sons, 2002.
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