25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (TCEE20 17)
A New Series-Fed Printed Dipole Array
Antenna for SSR
Mohsen Abdolahi, Gholamreza Askari, Hamid Mirmohammad Sadeghi
information and Communication Technology institute (iCTl),
lsfahan University of Technology (IUT), 8415683111
lsfahan, IRAN, Tel: +983133912480
m. abdolahi@ec. iut. ac. ir, askarigh@cc. iut. ac. ir, sadegCm@cc. iut. ac. ir
Abstract- A new Chebyshev tapered series-fed printed dipole
antenna comprising rhombus radiators at L band for SSR
application, is investigated. Effects of vital parameters
antenna performance and some other details are analyzed and
discussed as well. The proposed antenna, designed on standard
R05880 substrate with 0.787 mm thickness. On the basis of
careful design and optimization, antenna possesses an operating
bandwidth of 10% (for 10dB return loss criterion), a broadside
radiation pattern with 20dB gain, 8° BW, 22dB SLL, front-to­
back ratio greater than 30dB, and cross-polarization radiation
less than -25dB across the frequency band of interest in azimuth
plane and 40° BW in elevation plane. Moreover, the physical size
of the antenna is 2 x 0.40 x 0.15m3•
Keywords-Rhombus shaped dipole; Printed antenna; Series
feed, Sum and difference patterns; Secondary surveillance radar;
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, use of printed antenna is becoming more and more
common among others in the area of aviation,
telecommunication, and communication systems especially in
military applications. Among the possible candidates reported
in the literature, printed dipole antennas are considered to be
highly prospective and have been widely investigated. Printed
dipole antennas are commonly used as radiating elements and
have been popular candidates for phased array antennas that
contain many elements because of their suitability for
integration with microwave integrated circuit.
Several researchers have worked on printed dipoles with
radiating arms on opposite sides or same side of substrate.
Printed Quasi-Yagi antenna [1] is one of these antenna which
both arms are in same side of substrate and a wide operating
bandwidth in order of 48% has been reported. Replacing the
dipole and the director in the quasi-Vagi antenna by a bow-tie
element can improve the bandwidth to 60% and reduce the
antenna size by 20% [2]. Wilkinson [3] proposed a bow-tie
like configuration fed by a parallel line. Levine in reference
[4] considered a double sided printed dipole with a tapered
feed in order to improve the matching and parallel strip
transmission line to feed dipole.
Secondary surveillance radars (SSR) are civilian systems used
in air traffic control (ATe), which not only detect and measure
range and bearing of aircraft, but also request additional
information from the aircraft itself, such as its identity and
altitude. All systems have similar waveforms, and share
IEEE 2017© $31.00/978-1-5090-5963-8/17
common frequencies of 1.03GHz for interrogation and
1.09GHz for replying to interrogation. Actually, two patterns
on
(l: (sum pattern) and L1 (difference pattern)) should be used in
not critical SSR's antennas. In monopulse systems with two
patterns, PI and P3 pulses are forwarded through sum pattern
and P2 pulse is forwarded of difference pattern. Received
power level of pulses PI and P3 in transponder of airplane is
compared with received power of P2. If received power of PI
and P3 be greater than 9 dB from P2, transponder will reply to
interrogation. In ground station replied signal receive through
both sum and difference patterns and with comparing them,
target is found and false replies from airplane will be omitted
[5]. Several antenna have been designed for this application so
far, such as array of dipoles with cosecant squared pattern [6],
array of slots [7] and array of patches [8].
In this paper, a new printed antenna for SSR application
consisting of 10 rhombus shape radiators with a new wideband
tapered series-fed is investigated. These printed make them
suitable for use with plane or shaped reflectors to increase
gain and reducing back lobe. Designed antenna achieves 20dB
gain and 22dB SLL in azimuth plane. Also an auxiliary
backfill antenna is added to cover sum's back-lobe in
difference pattern to prevent a misdetection in backward
direction. To provide these goals several considerations are
discussed. In Section II of paper, design procedure with
considering goals and necessity of the antenna array are
expressed. In next section, antenna step by step is explained.
Section IV provides simulation results and discussion for
designed antenna with good radiation properties of feed
network. Finally, concluding remarks are given in section V.
ll. ANTENNA CONSIDERATION
As it introduced, required specification for a system is an
antenna with almost 20 dB gain, SLL better than 25dB, beam
width narrower than 9° and at least 30 dB front to back ratio in
azimuth of sum pattern. A fan beam with more than 40° BW
and nulls in ±90° (±90° than main beam) is required in
elevation plane. With considering required specification, kind
of element, numbers and its geometrical dimension, power
distribution and proper feed network are very important. The
most commonly used approach for reducing the side-lobe
level with high gain of an array, involves amplitude tapering
in which the excitation amplitudes generally decrease with
distance from center of the array.
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25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (TCEE20 17)

In order to obtain tapering amplitudes for a linear array of Ld

uniformly spaced point sources, several techniques have been
developed. In this paper, tapering in amplitude is done
according to the Chebyshev polynomials. With considering 30
dB SLL, excitation amplitudes according to Chebyshev are

Aj= (0.39, 0.51, 0.72, 0.9, 1, 1, 0.9, 0.72, 0.51, and 0.39).

(a)
m. ANTENNA DESIGN Printed rhombus dipole Substrate

\.
A. Single Element Design
The radiating element has main role in antenna's structure Reflector

which should have good impedance matching and pattern � (b)

behavior over the frequency range of interest. Printed dipole is
Fig. I. Designed rhombic printed dipole a) top view b) side view
discussed prior to the considerations of array configuration. In
proposed element, regular printed dipole shape is modified by Table I: Parameters of designed rhombic printed dipole
adding upper and lower triangular patches, which makes it
Parameter Value (mm)
look like a rhombus (Fig. 1). In designed element, both arms
of dipole are on the top of substrate. The presented antenna
Ld I 137
L, 80
provides a wide bandwidth of more than 100% and also Wd I 85
broadside radiation patterns with wide beamwidth and low Wdl 5
cross polarization level, which makes it a good candidate for H rer 50
phased arrays and radar systems. The geometric structure and -8 ,----,---,--�---,_--_,--_,
parameters of the designed printed dipole antenna are shown
and listed in Fig. 1 and Table 1, respectively. This dipole is
printed on one side of Rogers's 5880 substrate with dielectric
-12
constant of 2.2 and thickness of 0.787 mm and copper on
m
another side of substrate is removed completely. Simulation � -14
and analysis for the presented antennas are performed using
Ansys HFSS, which is based on the finite element method -16
(FEM). Although printed antennas are intrinsically simple,
-18
presence of the dielectric inhomogeneity presents a significant
challenge in designing these antennas. They have often been -20 '------'---'---"--�
designed based on experimental trial and error. Length of 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
Frequency (GHz)
dipole is about Ag/2 at resonance frequency (1.06 GHz) and
Fig. 2. Ref1ection coefficient of designed rhombic printed dipole
input resistance for designed element is actually high (almost with 220 ohm reference impedance
2200). Reflection coefficient (for 220 ohm input impedance)
and pattern of designed element with a reflector in 50mm
distance from element are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, o
respectively. Designed element has 10 dB gain with 44° and
m
85° BW in E-Plane and H-Plane, respectively. �-10
t:
'to
(9 -20
'C
"
B. Feed network .t;
1'i -30
As it is mentioned in section ll, amplitude and phase of a:

elements specify radiation characteristics of array, mainly its -40

effective pattern shape. Weighted power distribution has been
used to feed each of rhombus printed dipoles. As discussed in
previous section, gain of designed rhombus dipole is almost
10dB, therefore to achieve 20 dB gain of this array, number of
elements should be more than 10 elements.
With considering 25dB SLL, desired gain and number of
elements, Chebyshev power distribution is designed and space
between elements is considered 215mm (0.76A).
Existing methods which have been employed to feed arrays
can be categorized into parallel and series feeds [9-10].
-50 '-----'--'--"
-200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200
Theta (Deg.)
Fig. 3. Radiation patterns of designed element with reflector, E_Plane and
H Plane
For parallel feed configuration (corporate feed) as it is shown
in Fig. 4a, input power is split unequally at each T-junction to
generate a tapered distribution across the array.
Discontinuities, bends, power dividers, and other components
in the corporate feed array cause spurious radiation that limits

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25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (TCEE20 17)
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4. Feed network of antenna a) Corporate feed, b) Series feed
minimum SLL achievable. Also length of transmission lines
between input port and radiating elements will be actually
long. This problem cause insertion loss of feed network be
prohibitively large thereby reducing the overall efficiency of
the array. Series feed (Fig. 4b) usually consists of continuous
transmission line which small proportion of energy are
progressively coupled into the individual element disposed
along the line. This compact feed line with minimum line
length are appreciated for many years in various applications
such as communication and microwave systems [11-12]. But
series feed configurations suffer from narrow bandwidth and
inherent phase difference [13] which caused by the differences
in lengths of feed lines. Consequently, main limitation in
series-fed arrays is large variation of impedance and beam­
pointing direction over frequency range.
1. Series Feed Design
As discussed in previous section, structure of a series fed
array is such that it uses shorter line length in comparison with
corporate fed arrays. This leads to an antenna with less
dimension on substrate which have lower insertion loss and
lower spurious radiation from feed lines. Since effects of feed
network are very important in high gain printed antenna array
therefore loss of feed lines and spurious radiation will
decrease.
In this paper a series-fed array is selected to feed elements and
a new wideband Chebyshev tapered series feed is introduced.
An equivalent circuit for designed series-fed is constructed
and shown in Fig. 5 (This equivalent circuit is for half of
antenna and another half is the same). The circuit consists of
shunt impedances, representing elements which connected
together by transmission line segments. According to desired
input impedance (50 ohm) at feed point, equivalent circuit is
determined by tapered amplitude distribution. Therefore with
considering power ratio between each side of feed position
(1.81, 0.93) and equivalent impedance between them (Z2
parallel with Z3), Z2 and Z3 are specified. After that, according
to power ratio between elements I and 2, Z, will be a function
of G2. On another side of feed point, method is the same. At
first according to power ratio between G5 and G4, Z5 will be a
function of G4, after that, again, according of power ratio
between (05+04) and G3, Z4 will be a function of G4.
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Z1
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit of designed series feed network for half of antenna
Table 2: Impedances of equivalent circuit in designed series feed
Z, 178 ohm
Z2 76 ohm
Z3 148 ohm
Z4 279 ohm
Zs 376 ohm
220 ohm
G,-G2-G3-G4-GS
Fig. 6. A part of designed feed network
Impedance and admittance values of equivalent circuit are
listed in Table 2. Since both arms of rhombus printed dipole
are on one side of substrate, therefore coupled transmission
line should be used to feed dipoles. In order to realize desired
impedances in series feed, a lengthy and tedious work for
matching and changing impedances are investigated. A new
method with use of two transmission lines with different
impedances and different lengths is investigated to change
impedance of element to desire impedance. For example, to
convert impedance of element (Gl) to ZI with acceptable
bandwidth, coupled transmission lines with 220 and 165 ohm
and different lengths are used as it is shown in Fig. 6. With
this idea changing impedance from one element to desired
impedance is realized step by step.
It is well known that implementation of series-fed printed
dipoles antennas are very hard to do because of dielectric
inhomogeneity. Therefore, an accurate analysis method that
takes into account the presence of dielectric substrate and
reflector is presented to accurately design. This transmission
line analysis is known as suspended substrate couple lines
(SSCLine). With this transmission line, width of matching
lines will be 7mm and I mm for 160 ohm and 220 ohm lines,
respectively.
2. Balun Design
As it is mentioned in previous section, the antenna is
constructed from two halves (right and left sides). Since both
arms of feed point are on top side of substrate, feeding should
be done through a coaxial cable. As it is clear, balun should be
used to connect unbalance coaxial cable to balance feed line of
25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (TCEE20 17)

antenna. Simple quarter-wave balun is a practical solution for

numerous applications. Fig. 8a shows a coaxial transmission
line realization of balun. Two designed balun connected to the
terminals of right and left sides of antenna as it is shown in
figure.

3. Modified Ratrace and Coupler Design

In feed network for creating difference pattern, a compact
rat-race is key component in design. Also for enhancing
coverage of difference pattern in back of antenna, another
antenna should be used known as backfill antenna. Hence, in
difference port, a coupler is used to feed backfill antenna. Fig. 7. Designed circuit for feeding halves of antenna and backfill
Desired coupling value is about 20 dB. So, a simple practical
circuit to realize the taught coupling is T divider. In order to
realize both requests, a new circuit (Fig. 7) is designed which
its application is similar to rat race but with different topology.
When sum port is fed, outputs (1&2) have equal amplitude
and phase. When difference port is excited, a 20dB ratio of
input power will receive in backfill port through T divider and
remaining power will divide between outputs 1 and 2 with
equal amplitude and 1800 phase difference. This microstrip
circuit is designed and printed on R04003 substrate (€r=3.55)
with 0.812mm thickness and 160mmx 100mm dimension.

C. Backfill Antenna
According to desired requirements, backfill antenna is
mounted in back of reflector and a small percentage of
difference port is coupled to the backfill antenna. Designed
backfill antenna is a simple half wave dipole with balun (as it
is shown in Fig 8). (a)

IV. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS RESULTS

The proposed new antenna array in this work is shown in

Fig. 8. As it is shown, this structure consists of array of 10
rhombus printed diploes, a backfill antenna (cylindrical
dipole) in back of reflector which is connected through cable (b)
to backfill port of designed modified rat race and coupler
Fig. 8. Full structure of designed antenna a) isometric view b) front view
structure. Two outputs (1&2) of designed modified rat race are
connected through cable to halves of antenna array. To
validate the antenna design, simulation of the complete
antenna has been performed with HFSS software. Fig. 9 shows
reflection coefficient of sum and difference ports of antenna
which is better than 12 dB at frequency band. The simulated
E]lane (azimuth) patterns for 1.03GHz and 1.09GHz
frequencies are shown in Fig. 10. Tt is shown that sum pattern
has about 20dB gain with 9°BW3dB in azimuth plane and 40°
BW3dB in elevation plane. SLL and back lobe level of sum
pattern are better than 22dB and 35dB, respectively. Also it is
shown gain in difference pattern is about 16.2dB. Moreover,
side lobes of the difference pattern are about 4dB more than -30 '---_--'---_
- ...L._
. ---'-_----'__"---_--'---_
- ...L._
. ---'-_----'_----"

sum pattern in lots of azimuth coverage angles which make 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.1 1.11
Freq. (GHz)
this antenna suitable for this application. As it is expected, the
given plane reflector has decreased sidelobe level of sum Fig.9. Return loss of proposed antenna (Sum, Difference ports)
pattern to 22dB which not important in our application. Fig.
11 shows simulated H_Plane (elevation) of sum patterns at
1.03GHz and 1.09GHz frequencies.

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25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (TCEE20 17)

REFERENCES
20
[I] W. Deal. N. Kaneda. J. Sor. Y. Qian. and T. ltoh. A new quasi-Yagi
10 antenna for planar active antenna arrays, IEEE Trans Microw Theor
Tech 48 (2000), 910 -918.
iD 0 [2] AA Eldek, AZ. Elsherbeni, and CE. Smith, Characteristics of
�
microstrip fed printed bow-tie antenna, Microw Opt Tech Lett 43
. � -10
(2004), 123-126.
Cl
al -20 [3] W. C Wilkinson, "A class of printed circuit antennas," in IEEE
.�
(ij Antennas and Propagation Society Int. Symp. Digest, 1973, vo!. 12,
� -30 pp. 270-273.
[4] E. Levine, S. Shtrikman, and D. Treves, "Double-sided printed arrays
-40
with large bandwidth," IEEE Proc., vo!. 135, no. I, pt. H, pp. 54-59,
-50 1988.
-200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 200
[5] M. C Stevens, Secondary Survillance Radar, Artech House, 1988.
Phi (Deg.)
Ca) [6] M. Abdolahi, G. Askari and H. M. Sadeghi, "A new microstrip array
antenna with cosecant-squared beam shaping as a radiating column
for SSR," 2014 22nd Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering
20 (ICEE), Tehran, 2014, pp. I781-1785A

10 [7] Z. Pourgholarnhossein, M. Abdolahi, G. Askari and H. M. Sadeghi,

iD "A new microstrip fed-slot array antenna for secondary surveillance
� 0 radar," 201616th Mediterranean Microwave Symposium (MMS), Abu
"
'm Dhabi, 2016, pp. 1-4.
Cl -10
" [8] M. Abdolahi, Z. Pourgholamhossein and H. M. Sadeghi, " Design
Cl>
and Analysis Performance of a New Patch Array Antenna for SSR,"
�Cl> -20
2017 Progress in Electromagnetic Research Symposium (PIERS), St
a:
-30 Petersburg, 2017,.
[9] H. Errifi, A Baghdad, A Badri, and A Sahel ," Design and Analysis
-40 of Directive Microstrip Patch Array Antennas with Series, Corporate
-200 -150 -100 -50 0 50 and Series-Corporate Feed Network," International Journal of
Phi (Deg.) Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Vo!. 3, No. 6, December
(b) 2015.

Fig.IO. Simulated E_Plane radiation patterns of printed dipole array antenna [10] A Srivastava, V. Sharma, R. Sharma, ," Design of Series Feed
with feed network and backfill antenna eflects at frequency of Microstrip Patch Antenna Array using HFSS Simulator," Int. J on
a) l.03GHz b) 1.09GHz Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vo!. 8, No. 2, Jan
2013.
[11] T. Yuan, N. Yuan and L. W. Li, "A Novel Series-Fed Taper Antenna
20 Array Design," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters,
vo!. 7, no. , pp. 362-365, 2008.
10
[12] A. A Eldek, "Ultrawideband Double Rhombus Antenna With Stable
� 0 Radiation Patterns for Phased Array Applications," in IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vo!. 55, no. I, pp. 84-91,
Jan. 2007.

� -20 [13] Zhu,Q.,J. Zhu,W. Lu,L. Wu,and S. Xu,"Dual-linearlypolarized

microstrip array based on composite right/left-handed transmission
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a: -30 line," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vo!. 48,No.
7,1366-1369, July 2006.
-40

_50 L-__L-�__�__�__-L__-L__-L__-L__-L__�__��
-90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270
Theta (Deg.)

Fig.ll. Simulated H_Plane sum patterns of printed dipole array antenna with
feed network and backfill antenna eflects at frequencies of l.03GHz and
1.09GHz

V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, a new configuration of Chebyshev tapered

series-fed printed array is designed and introduced. Designed
antenna has about 20 dB gain and achieves 22dB SLL.
Actually, SLL and band width in this array has better features
compare with other series feed in other works. A very good
agreement has been obtained between theory and simulated
results of such an array.

1910