A millimeter-wave conformal phased microstrip antenna array

on a cylindrical surface


Qun Wu, Min Liu, Zi-Rui Feng
Department of Information Engineering
Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China
E-mail: mengxiang67@gmail.com


Introduction
As a vital development of the millimeter wave radar technology, conformal
antennas occupy no extra space; make the radar less disturbing and less visible to
the enemy in a war [1]. Additionally, the use of phased array antennas allows
advantages that other type of antennas do not have, like beam steering and
multiple beams, eliminating mechanical scanning which usually consumes more
power and due to its inertia is much slower than electronic scanning, so conformal
phased antennas have a great attraction in the area of aviation and spacecraft. A
cylindrical conformal microstrip antenna array due to the light weight, low profile,
low cost, integrability with microwave circuitry and simple manufacturing is an
attractive choice among different other systems [2-4].
In this paper, a millimeter-wave conformal phased 2 8 microstrip array on a
cylinder is presented. The hemline feed method and the parallel feed network is
used for forming the conformal microstrip array based on the isotropic
transformation theory. The radiation features and beam scanning characteristics of
the conformal antenna array are discussed. The simulations for this study are
performed on the CST MICROWAVE STUDIO and simulation results are given
to verify this design.

Isotropic transformation theory
A conformal cylindrical microstrip antenna element based on the hemline feed
method (HFM) [5] is shown in Fig.1. The Isotropic transformation theory (IT) [6]
technique is used and the original planar rectangular microstrip antenna (whose
rectangular coordinates are x, y, z) can be changed to an. cylindrical conformal
microstrip antenna (whose cylindrical coordinates are , , z ). The formulas (1)
of the transformation are

0 0
, / 2 , 90 90 r h W z z = + = = + (1)
Where is the radius of the cylinder and is the angle subtended by the arc-patch
at the center of the conducting. The radius of cylinder () is 100 mm and spacing
between elements is d = 0.5
0
both in the axial direction and the circumferential
978-1-4244-2042-1/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
direction of the cylinder. After above IT, the original planar patch can be changed
to a cylindrical conformal microstrip antenna.

Figure 1 Diagrammatic view of modeling

Conformal microstrip array on the cylindrical surface
The cylinder structure is designed just because it is an interesting geometry in
antenna engineering since it can be used in aircraft body surface, airborne
vehicles, rockets, and missile applications. Besides that, a cylindrical conformal
shape offers wide-angle coverage, low radar cross section (RCS), and good
aerodynamic performance [7].
Based on the parallel feed network and the IT theory, a conformal microstrip
patch 2 8 array on the cylinder is designed, which is shown in Fig.2. In the
figure 2, (a) is the elevation of the conformal array and (b) is the side elevation of
the conformal array. In the process of the conformal structure design, a planar 2
8 array is formed first, and then excludes the planar one to the cylinder to
compose a conformal 2 8 array. The simulation results are shown in Fig.3.

(a) The elevation (b) The side elevation
Figure 2 Conformal microstrip 2 8 array

(a) The S
11
parameter (b) Radiation pattern of the conformal array
Figure 3 The radiation features of the conformal array
In the figure 3, (a) is the return loss (S
11
) and (b) is the farfield planar radiation
pattern of the conformal 2 8 array. Simulation results show that the bandwidth
when VSWR < 2 of the array is about 1.02GHz and the gain is 19.6dB at the
center frequency 35GHz, the main lobe direction is 0, the angular width (3dB) is
13.5 and the side lobe level is -13.8dB.
Phase-Scanned pattern of the conformal array
With planar phased arrays, the radiation pattern changes with the direction of scan.
Conformal arrays with rotational symmetry, however, can have scan-invariant
patterns in at least one dimension. The beam can be moved by phase control of
the element excitations if the active region is fixed, just like in planar arrays. The
contribution uses phase control method to actualize beam scanning of the
conformal array. The phase-scanned patterns are shown in Fig.4.

(a) phase division =30 (b) phase division =60 (c) phase division =120
scan angle = 10 scan angle = 20 scan angle = 40
Figure 4 Phase-scanned pattern of the conformal array
From figure 4, it can be seen that: with the phase division of each element
increases in steps, the scan angle of radiation pattern move in corresponding
angular increments and the angular width varies following the trends of the phase
division. However, the gain of the array at 35GHz changes markedly opposite the
trends of the phase division and the side lobe level varies following the trends of
the phase division. That is, the bigger the phase division is, the bigger the scan
angle and the side lobe level are, contrarily, the lower the gain is. So this
disadvantage should be further discussed in future.
Conclusions
The work presents a design of a cylindrical conformal phased microstrip antenna
array. Based on the HFM and the parallel feed network, a conformal microstrip 2
8 array on a cylinder surface is designed by the isotropic transformation theory
(IT). Simulation results show that the conformal array works at 35GHz and the
gain is 19.6dB at the center frequency. The phase-scanned patterns of the
conformal 2 8 array are analyzed by the CST using phase control method. From
the comparison of the scanning results at different phase division, it can be found
that the scan angle, the angular width and the side lobe level varies following the
trends of the phase division, at the same time, the gain of the conformal array
changes markedly opposite the trends of the phase division. Therefore, this is a
shortcoming of the conformal phased array. This kind of conformal phased
sub-array can be easily expanded into a large-scale conformal array and be
suitable for active integration with other microwave circuits and communication
systems if this disadvantage was eliminated after further discussion in future.
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