A Novel Unidirectional Radiator with Superb UWB Characteristics for X-band Phased Array Applications

D.P. Tran1, F.M. Tanyer-Tigrek2, I.E Lager3, L.P.Ligthart4

Internatinal Research Centre for Telecommunications and Radar (IRCTR) Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD, Delft, the Netherlands
3

#1

d.p.tran@irctr.tudelf.nl, m.tanyer@irctr.tudelf.nl 4 i.lager@ewi.tudelf.nl, l.p.ligthart@irctr.tudelft.nl

AbstractWe present a compact, grounded CPWG-fed, single layer ultra wide band (UWB) ring slot antenna for X-band phased array applications. The followings, never achieved, Xband UWB characteristics are reported: 1) repeatable radiation patterns, 2) nearly perfect linear phase, 3) nearly constant gain, 4) over 90% of efficiency, 5) superb phase dispersion characteristic (negligible group delay, in the order of subnanosecond level), 6) a symmetrical fed-and-excited unidirectional with smallest dimension and widest impedance bandwidth, 7) and other excellent UWB antenna-related characteristics obtained with this design.

I. INTRODUCTION The FCC approval of spectrum for ultra wideband (UWB) for commercial usage, has led to a widespread development of a new class of wired/wireless devices. Developments of these devices place demands on antenna technology, with specific II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION emphasis on broadband operation and miniaturization. Basic design considerations are: size, form factor, cost, bandwidth, and dispersions characteristics (phase centre included). Requirements for commercial, short range UWB usage are less stringent than military, long range applications especially when super fine resolution is required. One of the most critical requirement for MWRF-devices (antenna included) is the reduction of the inherent dispersion to an acceptable limit. Dispersions are unwanted natural inheritabilities of EM devices, these always exist in multi-resonant structures and especially when dealing with wideband devices. Theories and models of dispersions have been thoroughly studied, analysed by mathematicians and theoretical EM researchers, but unfortunately there is no general formula or thumb-rule Fig.1. Proposed antennas configuration and its parameters; the ground available that could be anticipated thereof. plane underneath has same dimensions (P1,P2) of the upper patch. There exist UWB antennas/devices with huge bandwidth TABLE I some being more than 20:1, but they were not usable because DESIGN PARAMETERS (IN MM) AND THEIR FUNCTIONS of strong inherited dispersion, to the authors understanding Description Define/ Create/ Control Par Dim. the acceptable average group delay is in the order of nanoP1 13.4 ant. length Fund. resonance / mod seconds with fluctuation about 1ns over a normal temperature P2 13.4 ant. width Shifting the resonance L/R range [1], and existing UWB-antennas are not suitable for 4.95 patch length Fund. resonance phased array application because they have no ground plane[6] P3 P4 7.81 patch width Balance matching L/R UWB devices can be viewed as a filter system with some P5 1.94 sig. width Impedance c.r.w P6 magnitude and phase response [2]. A good measure for the P6 .102 gap width Fixed / fab. Tolerance performance of the device is its group delay, defined as P7 .9 carve length Transformer length negative derivative of the phase w. r. t angular frequency. P8 3 feed length Min. mat. length When a signal passes through a device, both amplitude and P9 .25 carve depth Transformer match phase will be certainly distorted, the distortion level P10 1.86 notch length Shifting BW determining the dispersive characteristic of the device. The P11 .21 notch width Match BW L/R

group delay gives an indication of the average time delay the input suffers at each frequency. Mathematically, the device response and the group delay are given by: H(f) = R()exp(j()); g = -d()/d (1) If the device has a non-linear phase response (), g will vary with frequency causing the input signal to experience different delays at different frequencies. Consequently, and as a result, the output will be distorted. To have a linear phase (i.e constant g ), its phase response must satisfy the following relationships: () = - ; () = (2) It can be shown that in order to satisfy either one of the above conditions of linear phase, the impulse response of the devices must have positive or negative symmetry [3]

P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 P18 P19 H

1 .5 1 .84 1.9 1.33 1.86 1 5.375

slot mitered cpwg mitered stub mitered stub length stub length separation stub width ring width Substrate height

Field matching / shaping Imp. transform / match field matching / shaping Ind. tuning /match Cap. tuning /match Adj/shift counter-pole res. Cap./ Ind. counter-pole Mutual coupling RT5880, r=2.2; tan=0.0009,
cladding oz

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The abstract discussion on global dispersion, discussed in section I, can be technically transliterated into practice by requiring that our device or antennas response must be as balanced and symmetric as possible. By implementing of several suitable counterpoise resonances we are able to design a radiator with super characteristics that we claim here: 1) Obtained is a radiator with perfectly symmetrical and balanced complex reflection spectrum response R(), (Fig.1 shows the reflection coefficient (S11) of the complex reflection spectrum R()). It is optimized such that all strong and deep resonances are merged or faded out, in this manner, as a result, we have 2) Fulfilled the critical requirement for the linear phase (Fig.2. shows a perfectly linear phase ever obtained for a multiple-resonance-type wideband antenna), and we have also 3) Limited the time-dispersive character of the group delay to the lowest level ever reported (Fig.3 demonstrates a smooth and negligible group delay with dispersion in the subnanosecond level), 4) Obtained a unidirectional radiator with widest impedance bandwidth ever made on a single substrate layer (over100% fractional BW of VSWR<2), 5) The antenna structure is simplest, consisting just of copper patterns run the upper layer and a ground plane underneath (no stack, no via, no metal runs inside and/or between the substrate), 6) The antenna is small enough for X-phased array applications, no grating lobe will theoretically appear for canning to 600 up to the higher end of the X-band (12GHz ), 7) Repeatable patterns in X-band spectrum, nearly perfectly omnidirectional pattern in the array-plane (X0Y), which make this radiator ideal for phased array applications. 8) The dilemma bandwidth and antenna size are inversely related has been ultimately optimized, the advocated antenna is possibly the one which posses the largest form factor (BWDR: BW-over-Dimension Ratio) to date. IV. RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS

Fig.4. Balanced distribution of the dominant even-mode-current at fc

Fig.5. Corresponding 3D radiation pattern at fc (10GHz)

Fig.6. The smoothest and lowest and negligible group delay distortion (sub-nano-level) ever reported for antenna with such a ultra wide spectrum

Fig.7. Repeatable and perfect omnidirectional patterns in the array-plane (X0Y-plane) for (5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10, 11, 12, 13, 14 GHz).

V. WORKS ON PROGRESS 1) Sensitivity investigation, 2) Step-by-step procedure of the design, 3) Detailed study of counterpoise resonances, studies of parameters implemented: 4) Weighting effects of protruding stub, patch, slot dimensions, balanced notches, carves, splits, mitered edges, capacitive, inductive stubs, and 5) How to redirect, to balance, to uniform the current distribution and how to matching both wave and field of the advocated structure will be detailed. Present analysis used FDTD-method, 6) Other numerical methods (FEM and MoM) will also be carried out and also included in the full paper. 7) The design antennas is currently in the process of being fabricated, the results of the relevant measurements will be discussed and presented in the full version of this contribution . VI. REFERENCES
[1] E. Powers, Calibration of GPS carrier-phase time-transfer equipment, 31st Annual precise time and time interval meeting (PTTI), Dava point, Dec.1999. Ed. by L.A. Breakiron, Washington,D.C., U.S Naval observatory, pp.441-448. X.Qing, et al., Network approach to UWB antenna transfer functions characterization, Proceedings of the European Microwave conf, Paris, France, Oct.,4-6, 2005, pp.1751-1754. E.C. Ifeachor, B.W. Jervis, Digital signal processing, a practical approach. Addidson-Wesley, 1993. H.F. Engler, Jr., Technical issues in ultra-wideband radar systems, in Introduction to ultra-wideband radar systems, ed. By J.D. Taylor, CRC press, New York, 2001, pp-11-50. A.H. Mohammadian, et.al, characterization of UWB transmit-receiver antenna system, Ultra-wideband and technologies, IEEE. Conference on, pp. 157-161, Nov. 16-19, 2003S.. D.Tran, et al., A novel CPW-fed optimized UWB printed antenna, in Proceedings of the 10th European conference on wireless technology., pp.40-43, Horizon house publication, 2007

[2]

[3] [4]

[5] Fig.2. Return loss of the complex reflection spectrum R() of the antenna Fig.3. Nearly perfect linear phase of the corresponding reflection spectrum

[6]