US3524151A - Phased array transmission lens feed system - Google Patents

Phased array transmission lens feed system Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US3524151A
US3524151A US696559A US3524151DA US3524151A US 3524151 A US3524151 A US 3524151A US 696559 A US696559 A US 696559A US 3524151D A US3524151D A US 3524151DA US 3524151 A US3524151 A US 3524151A
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
lens
feed system
wave
rear face
plate
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
US696559A
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Paul Safran
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Emerson Electric Co
Original Assignee
Emerson Electric Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Emerson Electric Co filed Critical Emerson Electric Co
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of US3524151A publication Critical patent/US3524151A/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q21/00—Antenna arrays or systems
    • H01Q21/0006—Particular feeding systems
    • H01Q21/0012—Radial guide fed arrays
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q15/00—Devices for reflection, refraction, diffraction or polarisation of waves radiated from an antenna, e.g. quasi-optical devices
    • H01Q15/02—Refracting or diffracting devices, e.g. lens, prism
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q3/00—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system
    • H01Q3/26—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture
    • H01Q3/30—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q3/00—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system
    • H01Q3/26—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture
    • H01Q3/30—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array
    • H01Q3/34—Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system varying the relative phase or relative amplitude of energisation between two or more active radiating elements; varying the distribution of energy across a radiating aperture varying the relative phase between the radiating elements of an array by electrical means

Definitions

  • This invention relates to electronically scanned radar antenna systems, and in particular to a parallel plate feed for a transmission type electronically scanned antenna.
  • the most common electronically scanned antenna system employs an array of phase shifters, each phase shifter being attached to a radiating element for forming an antenna beam.
  • the radiating elements are energized through the phase shifters by means of a feed system.
  • Two types of feed systems, direct (confined) and optical (space) feeds, have been employed.
  • Direct feeds, fabricated in wave guide, coaxial line, or strip line, may be of a variety of basic types, such as corporate feed, parallel feed, series feed and various matrices. All suffer from excessive complexity and weight in an antenna large enough to meet normal operational requirements.
  • the depth of the feed system also significantly increases the volume of the antenna.
  • Optical feeds utilize a horn spaced from the lens.
  • phase shifters collimate the incident spherical wave front from the feed into a planar phase front, or into a nonplanar phase front to vary the beam shape. This phase front is tilted to scan the beam.
  • the lens may be of either the reflection or the transmission type, but in either case the feed horn must be spaced from the lens. Furthermore, the feed horn must be held in a precisely determined position relative to the lens.
  • One of the objects of this invention is to provide a feed system for an electronically scanned antenna which does not add significantly to the volume of the array.
  • Another object is to provide such a feed system which is simple and light, and which is virtually self-supporting.
  • a feed system for a phased array transmission 3,524,151 Patented Aug. 11, 1970 lens which includes a plate section parallel with and spaced from the rear face of the lens to form a wave guide with the rear face of the lens.
  • the parallel plate is conveniently substantially congruent with the rear face of the lens.
  • a propagating means connected to the parallel plate introduces an electromagnetic wave front into the wave guide section.
  • Couplers or probes connected to the phase shifters in the lens couple the wave to the phase shifters. Each coupler is proportioned to give a coupling coefiicient which extracts sufficient power to give the desired amplitude taper.
  • the parallel plate is attached to the rear face of the lens by a gasket around its outer periphery, at a distance from the rear face of the lens of less than a wave length of the dominant frequency of the propagating wave.
  • the propagating means are a point source or a set of point sources of electromagnetic excitation.
  • the Wave guide thus acts as a radial wave guide and produces a cylindrical wave front or set of cylindrical wave fronts.
  • the propagating mode is T EM, and therefore the propagating means and couplers are both of the stub type and the spacing between the parallel plate and the rear face of the lens is very small, on the order of a small fraction of a wave length.
  • the propagating means are a set of slotted rectangular wave guides, and the propagating mode is TE (rotated from TEM).
  • the couplers are therefore of the loop type, and the spacing of the parallel plate from the rear face of the lens is on the order of three quarters of a wave length.
  • FIG. 1 is a view in perspective partially cut away, of an antenna system including one illustrative embodiment of feed system of this invention
  • FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view in section, taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1;
  • FIG. 3 is a view in perspective of an antenna system including another embodiment of feed system of this invention.
  • FIG. 4 is a view in perspective of an antenna system including another embodiment of feed system of this invention.
  • reference numeral 1 indicates one illustrative embodiment of feed system of this invention.
  • the feed system 1 includes a propagating means 2 comprising a cable 3, into the end of which is embedded a stub probe 4.
  • the propagating means 2 is mounted at the center of a plate 5 with the stub probe 4 extending through the plate 5.
  • the plate 5 is attached to a lens 6, and spaced from it to form a gap 19, by a gasket 7 extending around the periphery of the plate 5 and the lens 6.
  • the width of the gap 19 is a small fraction of a wave length of the dominant frequency to be propagated, proportioned according to standard wave guide engineering principles for TEM mode waves.
  • the inner surface 8 of the gasket 7 is made of a lossy material which will absorb any energy which reaches it from the propagating means 2.
  • the lens 6 includes a supporting structure 9 containing a large number of phase shifters 10. The rear face of the lens 6 is enclosed by a fiat closure plate 11. Stub probes 12 connected to the phase shifters 10 extend through the closure plate 11 into the gap between the closure plate 11 and the parallel plate 5. The stub probes 12 are proportioned to extract power according to the desired amplitude taper.
  • phase shifter 10 shifts the phase of the electromagnetic Wave passing through it in response to a phase shifter driver 14 controlled by a computer 15.
  • phase shifter setting includes a collimation factor compensating for the proximity of the phase shifter to the propagating probe 4 and a second factor for giving the desired phase taper.
  • the phase shifters translate a cylindrical wave front to a planar wave front and then tilt the planar wave front to give the desired beam direction.
  • a third factor may be added to distort the plane wave front for beam shaping.
  • an optical feed is provided in which f/d (focal length over aperture diameter) is essentially zero, and therefore the spherically propagated wave front of the usual optical feed has been projected to a cylindrical wave front.
  • the parallel plate feed thus yields the electrical advantage of an optical feed over a direct feed that if digital phase control is used the collimation correction randomizes the phase errors due to phase quantization and prevents the build up of high side lobes even when used with fewer control bits in each digital phase shifter. It is also lighter, more compact and physically simpler than either an optical feed with its requisite support structure or a direct feed.
  • FIG. 3 Another illustrative embodiment of feed system of this invention is shown in FIG. 3.
  • An elliptical transmission lens 26 is fed by a congruent parallel plate feed system 21 having an elliptical plate section 25 spaced from the lens 26 to form a gap 39 of the same width as thegap 19 in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
  • the lens 26 is identical in every respect except shape (and therefore precise configuration of phase shifters) with the lens 6 of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
  • a seal' 27 spaces the feed system 21 from the lens 26 and supports the feed system 21. Additional seals 34 divide the gap between the plate 25 and the rear face of the lens 26 into quadrants.
  • the propagating means 22 are connected to each other by a standard monopulsing circuit 35.
  • the monopulsing circuit 35 includes three standard channels; a sum channel 36, an elevation difference channel 37 and an azimuth difference channel 38. This arrangement allows standard monopulsing techniques to be used in a search and track type radar system.
  • FIG. 4 Another illustrative embodiment of feed system of this invention is shown in FIG. 4.
  • a parallel plate is spaced from a rectangular transmission lens 46 by a peripheral seal 47 and quadrant seals 54.
  • Loop type probes 52 connected to phase shifters in the lens 46 extend into the gap 59 between the lens 46 and the parallel plate 45.
  • Each quadrant is fed by propagating means 42 comprising a rectangular wave guide 43 having slots 44 which extend through the plate 45 and radiate into the gap 59. Terminations 60 are provided at the outer ends of the wave guides 43.
  • the propagating means 42 are thus analogs of a direct series feed.
  • the four wave guides 43 are positioned to optimize the elevation illumination.
  • the coupling coefficients of the wave guide slots 44 are chosen to optimize the azimuth illumination.
  • the input in this embodiment is adapted to be in the TB mode, and thus the parallel plate 45 is spaced from the lens 46 by a distance of approximately three quarters of a wave length of the dominant frequency to be propagated, proportioned according to standard wave guide engineering principles for TE mode wa es.
  • Attached to the propagating means 42 is a standard monopulsing circuit 55 having the usual three channels: a sum channel 56, an elevation difference channel 57, and an azimuth difference channel 58.
  • a feed system for energizing a phased array transmission lens having a plurality of controllable phase shifters, a rear face, and couplers arranged in at least two dimensions over substantially the entire surface of said rear face, said couplers being connected to said phase shifters for coupling electromagnetic waves to said phase shifters through said rear face, comprising a plate spaced from said rear face to form a wave guide defined by said plate and said rear face, and propagating means for propagating electromagnetic Waves in said wave guide parallel to said plate and said rear face.
  • a phased array transmission lens antenna system comprising a phased array transmission lens having a plurality of electronically controllable phase shifters, a rear face, and couplers arranged in at least two dimensions over substantially the entire surface of said rear face connected to said phase shifters for coupling electromagnetic waves to said phase shifters through said rear face; a feed system comprising a plate spaced from said rear face to form a wave guide defined by said plate and said rear face and propagating means for propgating electromagnetic waves in said wave guide, said propagating means comprising at least one point source of electromagnetic excitation at a dominant frequency for pro- 6 ducing a cylindrical wave front traveling parallel to said References Cited plate and said rear face about said point source; driver UNITED STATES PATENTS means for controlling said phase shifters, and computer means for controlling said driver means, said computer 2,566,703 9/ 1951 Iams 343-755 means and said driver means being adapted to cause said 3,170,158 2/1965 RQtman phase shifters to translate said cylindrical wave front to 5 3,245,081

Landscapes

  • Variable-Direction Aerials And Aerial Arrays (AREA)
  • Aerials With Secondary Devices (AREA)
US696559A 1968-01-09 1968-01-09 Phased array transmission lens feed system Expired - Lifetime US3524151A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US69655968A 1968-01-09 1968-01-09

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US3524151A true US3524151A (en) 1970-08-11

Family

ID=24797572

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US696559A Expired - Lifetime US3524151A (en) 1968-01-09 1968-01-09 Phased array transmission lens feed system

Country Status (6)

Country Link
US (1) US3524151A (xx)
BE (1) BE726641A (xx)
DE (1) DE1901242B2 (xx)
FR (1) FR2000095A1 (xx)
GB (1) GB1205002A (xx)
NL (1) NL6900318A (xx)

Cited By (8)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3673606A (en) * 1969-08-26 1972-06-27 Hazeltine Corp Flush mounted steerable array antenna
US3701158A (en) * 1970-01-22 1972-10-24 Motorola Inc Dual mode wave energy transducer device
US3852761A (en) * 1973-04-23 1974-12-03 Rca Corp Lens fed antenna array system
US3942130A (en) * 1974-12-30 1976-03-02 Hughes Aircraft Company Coax-to-radial transition
US3958247A (en) * 1974-12-23 1976-05-18 Rca Corporation Rf power coupling network employing a parallel plate transmission line
US4150382A (en) * 1973-09-13 1979-04-17 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Non-uniform variable guided wave antennas with electronically controllable scanning
FR2456399A1 (fr) * 1979-05-08 1980-12-05 Thomson Csf Antenne reseau hyperfrequence du type disque avec son dispositif d'alimentation, et application aux radars d'ecartometrie
US5285176A (en) * 1991-05-06 1994-02-08 Hughes Aircraft Company Flat cavity RF power divider

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2566703A (en) * 1947-05-14 1951-09-04 Rca Corp Radio wave focusing device
US3170158A (en) * 1963-05-08 1965-02-16 Rotman Walter Multiple beam radar antenna system
US3245081A (en) * 1963-02-08 1966-04-05 Hughes Aircraft Co Multiple feed wide angle antenna utilizing biconcave spherical delay lens

Family Cites Families (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US90952A (en) * 1869-06-08 Improvement in shifting cleats, or ring-bolts
US3276026A (en) * 1962-05-10 1966-09-27 Lab For Electronics Inc Doppler array with plural slotted waveguides and feed switching
US3305867A (en) * 1963-11-05 1967-02-21 Raytheon Co Antenna array system
US3354461A (en) * 1963-11-15 1967-11-21 Kenneth S Kelleher Steerable antenna array
US3290682A (en) * 1964-11-02 1966-12-06 Hughes Aircraft Co Multiple beam forming antenna apparatus
FR1470437A (fr) * 1966-01-14 1967-02-24 Csf Perfectionnement aux antennes constituées par des réseaux de source

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2566703A (en) * 1947-05-14 1951-09-04 Rca Corp Radio wave focusing device
US3245081A (en) * 1963-02-08 1966-04-05 Hughes Aircraft Co Multiple feed wide angle antenna utilizing biconcave spherical delay lens
US3170158A (en) * 1963-05-08 1965-02-16 Rotman Walter Multiple beam radar antenna system

Cited By (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3673606A (en) * 1969-08-26 1972-06-27 Hazeltine Corp Flush mounted steerable array antenna
US3701158A (en) * 1970-01-22 1972-10-24 Motorola Inc Dual mode wave energy transducer device
US3852761A (en) * 1973-04-23 1974-12-03 Rca Corp Lens fed antenna array system
US4150382A (en) * 1973-09-13 1979-04-17 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Non-uniform variable guided wave antennas with electronically controllable scanning
US3958247A (en) * 1974-12-23 1976-05-18 Rca Corporation Rf power coupling network employing a parallel plate transmission line
US3942130A (en) * 1974-12-30 1976-03-02 Hughes Aircraft Company Coax-to-radial transition
FR2456399A1 (fr) * 1979-05-08 1980-12-05 Thomson Csf Antenne reseau hyperfrequence du type disque avec son dispositif d'alimentation, et application aux radars d'ecartometrie
EP0020196A1 (fr) * 1979-05-08 1980-12-10 Thomson-Csf Antenne réseau hyperfréquence du type disque avec son dispositif d'alimentation, et application aux radars d'écartométrie
US4322731A (en) * 1979-05-08 1982-03-30 Thomson-Csf Disk-type ultra-high frequency antenna array with its supply device and the application thereof to angular deviation measurement radars
US5285176A (en) * 1991-05-06 1994-02-08 Hughes Aircraft Company Flat cavity RF power divider

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
NL6900318A (xx) 1969-07-11
DE1901242B2 (de) 1973-02-15
BE726641A (xx) 1969-07-09
DE1901242A1 (de) 1969-11-06
FR2000095B1 (xx) 1974-03-15
GB1205002A (en) 1970-09-09
FR2000095A1 (fr) 1969-08-29

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
JP2648421B2 (ja) 連続横断スタブ素子を有するアンテナ構造体およびその製造方法
US3500422A (en) Sub-array horn assembly for phased array application
EP0126626B1 (en) Resonant waveguide aperture manifold
US5359338A (en) Linear conformal antenna array for scanning near end-fire in one direction
US4458250A (en) 360-Degree scanning antenna with cylindrical array of slotted waveguides
US3858214A (en) Antenna system
US3389394A (en) Multiple frequency antenna
US3305867A (en) Antenna array system
US3413637A (en) Multifunction antenna having selective radiation patterns
US2654842A (en) Radio frequency antenna
US4187507A (en) Multiple beam antenna array
US2822541A (en) Lens antenna system
US7839349B1 (en) Tunable substrate phase scanned reflector antenna
US3524151A (en) Phased array transmission lens feed system
US6208293B1 (en) Photonically controlled, phased array antenna
US3277489A (en) Millimeter phased array
US3430242A (en) Bidirectional electronically scanned antenna system
US2918673A (en) Antenna feed system
Yngvesson et al. A new integrated slot element feed array for multibeam systems
US3747111A (en) Composite antenna feed
US6078288A (en) Photonically controlled antenna array
US4509055A (en) Blockage-free space fed antenna
US5486837A (en) Compact microwave antenna suitable for printed-circuit fabrication
US3526898A (en) Antenna with translational and rotational compensation
US2894261A (en) Antenna array