CN111183747B

CN111183747B - Millimeter wave air-fed phased array antenna

Info

Publication number: CN111183747B
Application number: CN201318006337.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵交成; 李斌; 平轶君; 李续平; 高昌杰; 赵迎超; 张鑫; 杨卓
Original assignee: No206 Institute Of China North Industries Group Corp
Current assignee: No206 Institute Of China North Industries Group Corp
Priority date: 2013-11-07
Filing date: 2013-11-07
Publication date: 2016-09-07
Anticipated expiration: 2033-11-07

Abstract

The millimeter wave phased array antenna provided by the invention has the advantages that the collection array and the radiation array are integrated horn array surfaces which are triangularly arranged, and the conical dielectric radiator is arranged in the integrated horn array surface and is used for improving the gain of the radiator unit, reducing the mutual coupling effect among the dielectric radiators and simultaneously blocking the radiation of noise signals radiated by the single-pulse multimode horn feed source to space; the ferrite phase shifter is positioned between the collecting array and the radiating array, and the structure of the ferrite phase shifter is in an integrated form; the single-pulse multi-mode horn feed source provides primary circular polarization irradiation to form required transmitting beams, and forms a sum beam and two difference beams during receiving. The system is simple, easy to realize and low in cost. Compared with the prior art, the invention can realize low cost of the radar and expand the application prospect of the millimeter wave radar on the premise of ensuring the battle technical indexes. The invention adopts the horn dielectric radiator form of triangular arrangement, the phase shifter adopts ferrite material, the empty feed form is adopted, the primary feed source is a single-pulse multi-mode horn, the design difficulty is greatly reduced, the system is simple, and the realization is simple and convenient.

Description

Millimeter wave air-fed phased array antenna

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the field of radar antennas, and particularly relates to a millimeter wave phased array antenna. The method is mainly applied to millimeter wave phased array radars and is also suitable for radio systems such as tracking, detection, communication, measurement, astronomical observation and the like.

Background

The phased array antenna system is the basis for realizing the multifunctional phased array radar, in the two-dimensional phased array antenna, two modes of feeding in an empty feed mode and a forced feed mode can be adopted, and the empty feed array can be divided into a transmission mode and a reflection mode; forced feeding requires complex power distribution and power combining networks to feed each antenna radiating element. The two-dimensional phase-scanning antenna requires each radiating unit to be provided with an electric control phase shifter, and is limited by devices and process conditions, so that the processing and manufacturing difficulty in millimeter wave bands is high, and the cost is extremely high.

A number of low-cost studies have been carried out in this field abroad, for example (Archer, d., "Lens-fed multiple beam Array" electronic Progress, vol.16, No.4, Winter 1974, pp.24-32) which disclose two-dimensional electrical scanning of antenna beams using Rotman lenses to form a multi-beam or stepped two-dimensional electrical scanning beam antenna system.

In 1996, the development of an antenna system using RAANT Lens in the Low frequency band, with Two-dimensional phase scanning achieved by row and column control, respectively, was reported in IEEE "Two-dimensional Low-cost Phased Array antennas" (Rao, J.B.L., G.V.trunk and D.P.patel, "Two Low-cost Phased Arrays," 1996 IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems and Technology, October 15-18, 1996, pp.119-124, Boston, MA.Colin, Jean-Marie, Phased Array radiation in frame: Present and Future).

The electric scanning scheme disclosed above limits its wide application in Millimeter Wave band due to its performance index, and due to the advance of technology, the europe and the united states currently focus on the development of active (or passive using MEMS as phase shifter) Millimeter Wave Phased Array antenna, for example (italy, Enzo carpenteri, Ugo f.d' Elia, Emilio De stepfano, Lucia Di Guida and robert viiello "Millimeter-Wave phase-Array Antennas", IEEE 2008) shows the overall idea and the test result of one line of active line Array, but it has not been reported in China due to its high cost and difficult process implementation.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical problem to be solved

In order to avoid the defects of the prior art, the invention provides a low-cost millimeter wave two-dimensional phase-scanning antenna system.

Technical scheme

A millimeter wave phased array antenna comprises an antenna housing 1, a radiation array surface 2, a collection array surface 3, a wave-absorbing box body 5 and a monopulse multimode horn feed source 6; the method is characterized in that: also comprises an integrated ferrite phase shifter 4; the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4 is arranged between the radiation array surface 2 and the collection array surface 3; the radiation array surface 2 and the collection array surface 3 are horn array surfaces which are arranged in a triangular mode, and the dielectric radiator 9 is arranged in a horn hole 7 of the integrated horn array; the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4 comprises a plurality of ferrite phase shifters 8 and a plurality of metal frames 10, the plurality of ferrite phase shifters 8 are assembled on the metal frames 10 in a combined mode, and the plurality of metal frames 10 are arranged in parallel and assembled to form the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4; the dielectric radiator of the radiation front 2 is electrically connected with the dielectric radiator of the collection front 3 through a ferrite phase shifter 8, and the number and arrangement form of the plurality of ferrite phase shifters 8 on the metal frame 10 are consistent with the dielectric radiator on the collection front 3 of the radiation front 2 to be connected at the position.

The horn array surface is integrally machined and molded.

The dielectric radiator is in a conical structure.

Advantageous effects

The millimeter wave phased array antenna provided by the invention has the advantages that the antenna array surfaces (the collection array 3 and the radiation array 2) are integrated horn array surfaces which are arranged in a triangular manner, and the conical dielectric radiator 9 is arranged in the horn array 7 and is used for improving the gain of a radiator unit and reducing the mutual coupling effect among the dielectric radiators and simultaneously blocking the radiation of noise signals radiated by a single-pulse multimode horn feed source 6 to the space; the ferrite phase shifter 8 is positioned between the collection array and the radiation array, and the structure of the ferrite phase shifter is in an integrated form; the single-pulse multi-mode horn feed source 6 provides primary circularly polarized irradiation to form a required transmitting beam, and forms a sum beam and two difference beams during receiving. The system is simple, easy to realize and low in cost.

Compared with the prior art, the invention can realize low cost of the radar and expand the application prospect of the millimeter wave radar on the premise of ensuring the battle technical indexes. The invention adopts the horn dielectric radiator form of triangular arrangement, the phase shifter adopts ferrite material, the empty feed form is adopted, the primary feed source is a single-pulse multi-mode horn, the design difficulty is greatly reduced, the system is simple, and the realization is simple and convenient.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a millimeter wave air-fed phased array antenna system according to the present invention

FIG. 2 illustrates a dielectric horn radiator with a radiation or collection front according to the present invention

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an integrated ferrite phase shifter according to the present invention

FIG. 4 exemplary scan and beam test patterns

FIG. 5 is a typical differential beam scan test pattern

The method comprises the following steps of 1-an antenna housing, 2-a radiation array surface, 3-a collection array surface, 4-an integrated ferrite phase shifter, 5-a wave-absorbing box body, 6-a monopulse multimode horn feed source, 7-a horn hole, 8-a ferrite phase shifter, 9-a dielectric radiator and 10-a metal frame. .

Detailed Description

The invention will now be further described with reference to the following examples and drawings:

the embodiment of the invention adopts the horn dielectric antenna in a triangular arrangement form as the radiation unit, each radiation unit is connected with the integrated ferrite phase shifter with low cost, and the electric control phase shifting of the phase shifter is realized through the excitation current output by the exciter, thereby completing the electric control scanning of the wave beam in the airspace. The antenna system comprises a monopulse multimode horn feed source, an antenna array surface (a collecting array and a radiating array), a ferrite phase shifter, an antenna housing, an external extension (an exciter, an exciter power supply, a wave control machine and an exciter wave control machine box body), an antenna wave absorbing box body and the like. The antenna array surfaces (collecting arrays and radiating arrays) are horn array surfaces which are arranged in a triangular mode, and the dielectric radiators are arranged in the integrated horn array surface and used for improving the gain of the radiator units, reducing the spatial coupling among the dielectric radiators and blocking noise signals radiated by the feed source from radiating to the space; the ferrite phase shifter is positioned between the collecting array and the radiating array, and the structure of the ferrite phase shifter is in an integrated form; the single-pulse multi-mode horn feed source provides primary circular polarization irradiation to form required transmitting beams, and forms a sum beam and two difference beams during receiving.

Referring to the attached drawing 1, the air-fed phased array antenna system of the invention is composed of an antenna housing 1, a radiation array surface 2, a collection array surface 3, an integrated ferrite phase shifter 4, a wave-absorbing box body 5, a single-pulse multimode horn feed source 6 and other units. An integral ferrite phase shifter 4 is placed between the radiation front 2 and the collection front 3.

Referring to fig. 2, the radiation array plane 2 and the collection array plane 3 in the invention both adopt horn radiation units arranged in a triangle, and are composed of 2882 horns 7, the horn array plane is integrally processed and molded, and the medium radiator 9 is arranged in the horn hole 7 of the integrated horn array;

referring to fig. 3, the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4 of the present invention has 26 pieces in total, and is composed of a ferrite phase shifter 8, a dielectric radiator 9 and an integrated metal frame 10. 26 metal frames 10 are arranged in parallel and assembled to form the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4. Each metal frame 10 is provided with a plurality of ferrite phase shifters 8, the dielectric radiators of the radiation front 2 are electrically connected with the dielectric radiators of the collection front 3 through the ferrite phase shifters 8, and the number and the arrangement form of the plurality of ferrite phase shifters 8 on the metal frame 10 are consistent with those of the dielectric radiators on the collection front 3 of the radiation front 2 to be connected at the position.

Radio frequency transmitting power is input by a single-pulse multimode horn feed source 6, radio frequency signals output by the multimode horn feed source reach a collecting array 3 through a wave absorbing box body 5, the radio frequency signals intercepted by all collecting array units are subjected to phase modulation through an integrated ferrite phase shifter 4, the radio frequency signals are fed into a radiation array surface 2, and an antenna is radiated to a designated airspace through a cover 1. The process of receiving radio frequency signals from a designated airspace is the reverse of the above process, and the only difference is that 3 paths of signals (a sum signal, a azimuth difference signal and a pitch difference signal) are output from the single-pulse multimode horn feed source 6.

The invention realizes the inertia-free scanning of the wave beam in the space by electrically controlling the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4.

The directional diagram characteristic is determined by the radiation front 2, the collection front 3 and the primary directional diagram of the monopulse multimode horn feed source 6, and the electric control scanning of the wave beam in the space is realized by controlling the integrated ferrite phase shifter 4.

The actual test results are shown in the figure. FIG. 4 is a typical scan and pattern tested over a range of + -30 deg., with side lobe levels less than-23 dB over the entire scan range and a beam width of about 2 deg.; figure 5 is a typical scan difference pattern tested. The performance index of the material reaches the design requirement.

Claims

1. A millimeter wave phased array antenna comprises an antenna housing (1), a radiation array surface (2), a collection array surface (3), a wave-absorbing box body (5) and a monopulse multimode horn feed source (6); the method is characterized in that: the integrated ferrite phase shifter (4) is also included; the integrated ferrite phase shifter (4) is arranged between the radiation array surface (2) and the collection array surface (3); the radiation array surface (2) and the collection array surface (3) are integrated horn array surfaces which are arranged in a triangular mode, and the dielectric radiator (9) is arranged in a horn hole (7) of the horn array surface; the integrated ferrite phase shifter (4) comprises a plurality of ferrite phase shifters (8) and a plurality of metal frames (10), the plurality of ferrite phase shifters (8) are assembled on the metal frames (10), and the plurality of metal frames (10) are arranged in parallel, assembled and assembled into the integrated ferrite phase shifter (4); the dielectric radiator of the radiation front (2) is electrically connected with the dielectric radiator of the collection front (3) through a ferrite phase shifter (8), and the number and the arrangement form of the plurality of ferrite phase shifters (8) on the metal frame (10) are consistent with the dielectric radiators on the radiation front (2) and the collection front (3) which are required to be connected at the position.

2. The millimeter wave phased array antenna of claim 1, wherein: the horn array surface is integrally machined and molded.

3. The millimeter wave phased array antenna of claim 1, wherein: the dielectric radiator is in a conical structure.