ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4

20
4.5 Broadside and endfire arrays
A broadside array has its main beam perpendicular to the array axis. From the
graphical construction presented in Section 4.4, we conclude that for a broadside array
k
o
0. Figure 4.13 plots the array factor for broadside arrays with d / 2 and varying
N. We observe that, for constant d, as N increases, the beamwidth of the main beam
decreases, and the number of sidelobes increases. Figure 4.14 plots the array factor for
N=7, and varying d. We observe that, as d increases, the number of sidelobes increases
while the width of the main beam decreases. We also notice that for d > , lobes equal
in magnitude to the main beam appear (Figure 4.15). These lobes will be called grating
lobes. You can easily verify that the onset of the grating lobe for a broadside array occurs
when
(4.25) kd
N
2
2

Since k 2 / , we conclude that for the broadside array, grating lobes will exist if
(4.26) d
N
>

1
]
1
1
1
Next, we will turn our attention to the construction of endfire arrays. Arrays
operating in endfire mode generate a single, highly localized pencil beam along the axis
of the array. Consider the construction of an endfire array which fires its main beam in
the +z direction. Since 0 corresponds to the main beam, the first condition for an
endfire array design is found to be
(4.27) k kd
o
.
Arrays obeying this condition are named as ordinary endfire arrays. How should we pick
the interelement distance d? Figure 4.15 plots the array factor of an N=7 element array
satisfying condition 4.xx, for various d. It is observed that as d increases, the width of the
endfire beam decreases, while the number of sidelobes increases. We also observe that
for large interelement distances, backward radiation lobes (grating lobes) occur. For
example, if kd , there will be two equally large lobes; one along the +z axis and the
other along the -z axis. The onset of the backward radiation lobe occurs when
2 2 2 kd N / , or
(4.28) d
N

1
]
1

2
1
1
ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4
21
An array satisfying conditions (4.27) and (4.28) will be termed an endfire array of type I:
it has a minimum main beamwidth and no backward radiation. Sometimes, we will relax
criterion (4,,28) and allow some backward radiation by choosing
(4.29) d
N

1
]
1

2
1
1
2
An array satisfying conditions (4.27) and (4.29) will be termed an endfire array of type II.
In 1938, Hansen and Woodyard proposed a way to increase the directivity of an
endfire array based on their study on infinitely long line sources. Their result, which
states that the phase progression, k
o
, should be greater than the electrical distance, kd,
between the elements, is given as
(4.30) ( ) k kd N
o
+ .
The underlying principle for the Hansen-Woodyard condition (4.30) is to move the
visible region slightly away from the 0 axis so that some part of the main beam is
not included in the array pattern. This reduces the main beamwidth and, hence, increases
the directivity. This is done at the expense of reducing the main beam amplitude, which
also means increasing the side lobe level with respect to the main beam, and enhancing
the back lobe. To keep the back lobe level less than the main lobe level, an upper bound
similar to (4.28 - 4.29) can be derived for the interelement spacing. To this end, we
observe that k
o
< insures that the back lobe level is smaller than the main beam. This
condition together with (4.30) dictates that
(4.31) d
N
<

_
,

2
1
1
.
An example for a Hansen-Woodyard array radiating in =0 direction with N=6
elements and an interelement spacing of d=5/13 is shown in Figure 4.17.
ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4
22
-4 -2 2 4
psi

-4 -2 2 4
psi
(a) (b)
-4 -2 2 4
psi

-4 -2 2 4
psi
(c) (d)
Figure 4.13. Array factor construction for broadside arrays k
0
0 and d / 2 and varying N, (a) N=2,
(b) N=3, (c) N=4, (d) N=10.
ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4
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-0.75 -0.5 -0.25 0.25 0.5 0.75
psi

-2 -1 1 2
psi
(a) (b)
-4 -2 2 4
psi

-6 -4 -2 2 4 6
psi
(c) (d)
Figure 4.14. Array factor construction for broadside arrays k
0
0 and N=7 and varying d, (a)
d 01 . , (b) d 0 3 . , (c) d 0 5 . , and (d) d 0 7 . .
ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4
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-7.5 -5 -2.5 2.5 5 7.5
psi

-10 -5 5 10
psi
(a) (b)
-15 -10 -5 5 10 15
psi

-7.5 -5 -2.5 2.5 5 7.5
psi
(c) (d)
Figure 4.15 Array factor construction for broadside arrays k
0
0 , N=6, and varying d, (a) d 1 , (b)
d 15 . , (c) d 2 0 . , and (d) d 5 6 / (onset condition).
ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4
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-1.5 -1.25 -1 -0.75 -0.5 -0.25 0.25
psi

-4 -3 -2 -1 1
psi
(a) (b)
-8 -6 -4 -2
psi

-10 -8 -6 -4 -2 2
psi
(c) (d)
Figure 4.16 Array factor construction for endfire arrays with N=7 and varying d, (a) d=0.1, (b) d=0.3, (c)
d=0.5, and (d) d=0.7.
ECE 354 Lecture Notes, Chapter 4
26
-6 -4 -2
psi

-6 -4 -2
psi
(a) (b)
Figure 4.17 Array factor construction for endfire arrays with N=7 and varying d, (a) endfire type I array, (b)
endfire type II array.
|AF (,)
n
kd
z
k = -(kd+/N)
o
Figure 4.18 Array pattern for a Hansen-Woodyard endfire LCPESA with N=6, d=5/13, and
k kd N
o
+ ( / ) .