Low-cost Metallic Linear Array Antenna with Cosecant-Squared Radiation Pattern

Abstract

In this paper, a wide-band and high-power array antenna with air substrate is proposed. Such an array antenna is designed for using in Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN). To do so, the elements of the array are excited such a way that the resultant antenna produces a cosecant-squared radiation pattern in elevation plane. To this end, it is utilized an iterative method for computing the optimized elements excitations to synthesis cosecant-squared pattern with reduced side lobe level (SLL). The obtained elements' excitations are also implemented using a metallic feed network. Finally, the designed array antenna along with feed network is fabricated and successfully tested. It is shown that the measurements are in good agreement with those obtained by simulations. In addition, the implemented array along with its feed network has 23% bandwidth, maximum gain 9.7dBi, and SLL<-23dB at central frequency (=1100MHz).