Ku-band Active Array Antenna for Mobile DBS Reception

Jong Moon LEE, Won Kyu Choi, Cheol Sig Pyo, Jae Ick Choi
Advanced Radio Technology dept. ETRI 161 Gajeong-Dong Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 305-350 Korea jmlee@etri.re.kr Abstract In this paper, a high efficiency active array antenna module using microstrip patch subarrays with the stacked patch and the low cost packaged monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) phase shifters is developed, which is used in the active phased array antenna system. The antenna elements and the active circuitry are integrated to improve the array performance on the same substrate. It exhibits the antenna gain to noise temperature ratio (G/T) of 0 dB/K. The 3 x 4 circularly polarized radiator subarray has a 3dB axial ratio bandwidth of 25% and 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of 15.2%. And the tracking performances for this antenna with gain of 24dBi (3 x 8 radiator) are discussed from the moving test on urban road, national road, and expressway. The average receiving rates are 88% on urban area and 99% on highway except tunnels, respectively. In addition, the reduction of the relative receiving rate due to the blockings and the rainfall intensity is investigated.
Keywords-satellite communication; active array; ku-band; DBS

presents the performance of the active array antenna module, in which the antenna elements and the active circuitry are integrated on the same substrate. Section IV describes in result of moving test for antenna system II. RADIATOR SUBARRAY [6,7]

I.

INTRODUCTION

A direct broadcasting satellite (DBS) service via Koreasat 3 is currently provided and there are many subscribes for a residential house. In addition, many people want to watch the DBS TV even in vehicles because it has advantages over terrestrial TV broadcasting with high quality, simultaneity, wide coverage, and so on. Several antenna systems for mobile DBS reception have been developed on the basis of various flat antennas mounted on vehicles roofs[1,2,3]. The most attractive of these is an active phased array antenna technology. However, the conventional technology is very expensive, restricting its use in commercial products. To solve this, a modification in the phased array antenna is introduced using twelve active array elements for cost-effectiveness[4,5]. The system shows a high performance for receiving, but is still expensive, large and tall to be installed on a car due to low element gain and connection loss between the radiator subarray and the active channel block (ACB). Therefore, we have made a great effort to develop high efficiency radiator subarray[6], and have realized a small and low-profile active phased array antenna system mountable on a small car. This paper describes the design of the active array antenna module and also presents experimental results. Section II describes the design of the 3x4 circularly polarized subarray with the corner-truncated square patch fed by a microstrip line and the stacked patch. Section III describes in detail the design of the ACB using the low cost, packaged monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) phase shifter and

Fig. 1 shows a structure of the broadband circularly polarized single patch. The patch fed by a microstrip line and stacked patch are truncated to obtain circular polarization. As seen in the Fig. 1, lower patch and microstrip line are on the substrate with r =2.5 and thickness=20mil, the stacked patch on the thin film is supported by lower foam, and this patch is covered by upper foam (thickness=2mm). Being very thin (0.04mm) with respect to wavelength, the film hardly affects radiation pattern. Based on the geometry shown in Fig. 1, the results of the simulation using ENSEMBLE 5.1 are shown in Fig. 2. A 10dB return loss bandwidth is 1.3GHz (11.2 12.5GHz[11%]), a 3dB axial ratio bandwidth is 0.7GHz (11.4 12.1GHz[6%]).

Upper Foam

Film Stacked Patch Lower Foam Lower patch

Substrate Ground

Fig. 1. The geometry of the single patch.

0-7803-8114-9/03/$17.00 2003 IEEE.

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Fig. 2.The simulated result of the single patch. The designed array structure is shown in Fig. 3. The distance between each patch is 0.85 0 and the array is designed using sequential rotation feed. By using these sequential rotation feed, an antenna performance is better than that of single patch.
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(a) Return loss, axial ratio and gain

Co-Pol(phi=0) Co-Pol(phi=90) Cross-Pol(phi=0) Cross-Pol(phi=90)

Redundant length for in-phase

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divider for different power distribution

(b) Radiation pattern (meas.) at 11.85 GHz Fig. 4. Simulated and measured results of 3x4 subarray antenna The side lobe level is lower than -10dB and cross-pol level is lower than -25dB for broadside direction. The half power beamwidths (HPBW) are 18.5o in phi=0 plane and 14.5o in phi=90 plane, respectively. The maximum gain is 19.5 dBi and 3dB axial ratio bandwidth is 25% (9.8 GHz - 12.6 GHz). The simulated and experimental impedance bandwidths for VSWR < 2 are 15% (10.8 GHz - 12.55 GHz) and 15.2% (10.9 GHz - 12.7 GHz), respectively. III. ACTIVE ARRAY ANTENNA MODULE [7]

(a) Subarray antenna structure

(b) Photograph of fabricated 3x4 subarray antenna Fig. 3. Subarray antenna structure In this paper, the 3x4 circularly polarized antenna is fabricated. The measured result compared with simulation is shown in Fig. 4(a) and the radiation pattern measured at 11.85GHz is shown in Fig. 4(b).

The active array antenna module is composed of two active subarrays containing the microstrip patch subarray and the ACB, in which the active devices for amplifiers and phase shifters are integrated directly with the feeding network and radiating elements to improve the array performance on the same substrate (TLX-9, 20mil-thick, r=2.5), and the subarrays are inclined at 46 o to horizon. The developed active array antenna module is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Photograph of the active array antenna module The ACB performs the roles to amplify RF signal with low noise coming from the radiator and to phase shift RF signal. The ACB is composed of the FETs, microstrip band pass filter (BPF), MMIC phase shifter, stabilized DC bias circuit, and the phase control interface part. By the design specification, the typical linear gain of the ACB is about 25 dB at initial phase state and its gain variation by phase control states is less than 2 dB, and the minimum phase control step is 22.5o. The linear gain, input return loss, and output return loss were measured using a vector network analyzer. Also, the noise figure response of it is measured using noise figure measurement system. The linear gain (S21) including the power combiner is 22.4 dB (at 11.85 GHz) at the initial phase state. The input return loss (S11) is -25.1dB and output return loss (S22) is 9.1dB. Fig. 6 shows the measured S21, S11, and S22 results in the 11.7 GHz ~ 12 GHz frequency. In Fig. 7, the noise figure response of it is shown, and its typical value is 0.8 dB. The phase responses of the active channel block by each phase states were measured using a vector network analyzer and control program. The phase variation of it by phase control state was lower than 5o within operating band as shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 7 Noise figure response of the ACB

Fig. 8 Phase response of ACB by each phase states The carrier to noise power ratio (C/N) of the active array antenna module was measured directly from Koreasat3 DBS signal whose effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) is 61 dBW at Daejon and bandwidth is 21.3 MHz. It exhibits the C/N of 10.2 dB as shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9 Measured C/N of the active array antenna module IV. MOVING TEST OF ANTENNA SYSTEM

Fig. 6 Measured S21, S11, and S22 of the ACB

The vehicle (minivan) was driven with normal speed on road conditions such as urban road, national road and expressway to acquire the experimental field test data. We performed the moving test from Dae-Jeon to Go-Seong in Korea. Detailed routes are as follows; the city area of DaeJeon, Kyoung-Bu Expressway without tunnel, Young-Dong Expressway with tunnel, 6th and 7th National Road, and Go-

Soung. The beam of this planar antenna is steered mechanically in azimuth to maintain the maximum receiving signal level from satellite. The DBS TV receiving rates of the antenna system are various in the several road conditions. But it is obvious that the good performance appears at wide and open area without blocking things. Furthermore, it is possible to estimate the varying range of receiving rate according to atmospheric conditions such as rainfall and heavy cloud. Fig. 11. shows the receiving rate distribution on various road conditions. The average receiving rates are 88% on urban area, 98% open area, 92% steep mountains and 99% highway except tunnels. Fig. 12. presents the estimated relative receiving rate in consideration of signal loss due to rainfall, heavy cloud, shadow and so on. The receiving rate is highly varying on urban area and steep mountain area. On the other hand, that of expressway keeps constantly high even in the rainfall of 3dB.
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V.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, a high performance active array antenna module using microstrip patch subarrays with the stacked patch and the MMIC phase shifters is developed, which is used in the active phased array antenna system. A small and low-profile active phased array antenna system mountable on a small car can be realized using the developed active array antenna modules. To receive the signal from DBS Koreasat3, two active array antenna modules will be arranged on the upper plane of the frame. The moving test was carried out in roads such as urban road, national road and expressway. The test results show that this antenna system can receive the signal from DBS Koreasat 3 with the receiving rate of 99% in highways. And the relative receiving rate variation on highways is not bad in the rainfall of 3dB.

REFERENCES
[1] [2] K. Fujimoto, J.R. James, Mobile Antenna Systems Handbook, Artech House, Inc., 1994. Jiro Hirokawa, et al., A Single-Layer Slotted Leaky Waveguide Array Antenna for Mobile Reception of Direct Broadcast from Satellite, IEEE Trans. On Vehicular Technology, Vol.44, No.4, pp.749-754, Nov. 1995 S.I Jeon, et al., Vehicular Active Antenna System with Combined Electronical and Mechanical Beam steering for Reception from DBS in Ku-band, XXVII Moscow ICATT IEEE AP-S, pp. 72-77, Sept. 1998. S.I Jeon and D.G. Oh, Active phased array antenna for mobile multimedia services via satellite, Aerospace Conference Proceeding, 2000 IEEE, Vol.5, pp. 165-170, 2000. S.Y. Eom, Y.C. Moon, C.S. Pyo, C.G. Park, S.I. Jeon, D.C. Oh, Design and Test of RACM in Ku-band Vehicular APAA System for DBS Reception, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ELECTROMAGNETICS IN ADVANCED APPLICATIONS (ICEAA99), pp. 215-218 Won kyu Choi, Cheol sig Pyo, and Jae ick Choi, Broadband Circularly Polarized Corner-truncated Square Patch Array Antenna, to be published in 2002 AP-S International Symposium, San Antonio, June, 2002. Jong Moon LEE, Won kyu Choi, Cheol sig Pyo, and Jae ick Choi Kuband Active Array Antenna Module for Mobile DBS Reception, 2002 APMC Kyoto International Conference, November 19~22, 2002

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Receiving Rate(%)

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Fig. 11. . Receiving rate distribution on various road conditions

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Fig. 12. Receiving rate distribution in consideration of signal loss