Title
Experimental Demonstration of a Dielectric Dome Antenna with Reduced Profile and Wide Scanning Capability
Author
Gandini, E.
Silvestri, F.
Benini, A.
Gerini, G.
Martini, E.
MacI, S.
Viganò, M.C.
Toso, G.
Monni, S.
Publication year
2019
Abstract
A wide scanning dome antenna with reduced profile is presented in this contribution. The minimum height of the dielectric lens is derived from its geometrical configuration and imposed in the design. The antenna is analysed using in-house ray tracing and physical optics tools. Because of the presence of the lens, the phase distribution of the elements is not linear and is derived from the ray distribution over the array using a Zernike polynomial expansion. The maximum scanning angle of the illuminating array is 60° and, due to the combination with the lens, the field of view is enlarged to 70° with similar performance in all planes. A demonstrator of the lens was manufactured and combined with an available phased array working in Ku-band. The active reflection coefficient is not significantly affected by the presence of the lens thanks to the matching layer on both the dielectric surfaces. The measured radiated patterns are in excellent agreement with the theoretical prediction, and they then validate the analysis tools. The active element patterns of the dome antenna are rotationally symmetric, showing how the radiating performance is almost independent on the plane of scanning. Moreover, the gain for scanning wider than 60° is significantly improved compared to the stand-alone array. © 2019 European Microwave Association (EuMA).
Subject
Dome antenna
lens antenna
phased array
wide scanning
Antenna phased arrays
Domes
Microwave antennas
Physical optics
Scanning
Scanning antennas
Active element patterns
Dielectric lens
Dielectric surface
Experimental demonstrations
Geometrical configurations
Phase distribution
Scanning angles
Zernike polynomial expansion
Lens antennas
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:93de17b8-96af-4753-92ec-e869fe496471
TNO identifier
871870
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN
9782874870552
Source
2019 49th European Microwave Conference, EuMC 2019, 49th European Microwave Conference, EuMC 2019, 1 October 2019 through 3 October 2019, 145-148
Article number
8910864
Document type
conference paper