This article was downloaded by: [117.207.215.

159]
On: 10 March 2015, At: 09:35
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,
37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

IETE Journal of Research

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tijr20

A Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne

Applications
a

Abhijit Sanyal , Ananjan Basu , Shiban Kishen Koul , Mahesh Abegaonkar , Suma Varughese
& P. B. Venkatesh Rao
a

Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, I.I.T. Delhi, New Delhi

Centre for Airborne Systems, Defence R and D Organization, Bangalore, India

Published online: 01 Sep 2014.

To cite this article: Abhijit Sanyal, Ananjan Basu, Shiban Kishen Koul, Mahesh Abegaonkar, Suma Varughese & P. B. Venkatesh
Rao (2012) A Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications, IETE Journal of Research, 58:1, 34-43
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0377-2063.94081

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained
in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the
Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and
are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and
should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for
any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever
or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of
the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

A Planar End-fire Array in S-band for

Airborne Applications
Abhijit Sanyal, Ananjan Basu, Shiban Kishen Koul, Mahesh Abegaonkar, Suma Varughese1 and P. B. Venkatesh Rao1
Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, I.I.T. Delhi, New Delhi, 1Centre for Airborne Systems, Defence R and D Organization, Bangalore, India

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

ABSTRACT
Planar end-fire arrays can be used in airborne radar applications for forward and rear vision. The purpose of this
work is to demonstrate the viability of constructing end-fire arrays with good bandwidth and front-to-back (f/b)
ratio. The array so constructed must be extendable to a large number (possibly >1 000) of elements depending on
the platform. In this work, starting from a basic S-band 22 array, arrays with higher number of elements have been
studied through simulations such as 44, 48, and 216 configurations. An end-fire array comprising 48 elements
(uniformly excited) has been successfully fabricated and tested giving a f/b ratio of 15 dB, and directivity 15 dB and
an array comprising 48 elements excited by coefficients of Chebyshev polynomials has been simulated which gives
a f/b ratio of 25 dB and similar directivity. Beam steering simulations show that the 48 array can be steered to 25
degrees with acceptable side lobe levels.
Keywords:
Airborne radar, Dipole antenna, End-fire antenna, Planar array.

1. INTRODUCTION
In airborne radars, there is a restriction on the antenna
orientation as it should not obstruct the airflow during
flight. In order to effectively cover the forward and rear
directions, such radars can use a planar end-fire array.
Very little information about such antennas or systems
which are operational can be found. As far as we know,
the only airborne radar which uses such an antenna
array, called the top-hat antenna is described in the
study by Hendrix [1], and here too, the antenna elements
are not planar. An effort to develop such an antenna
array at S-band, using planar elements, is described here;
the benefits of using planar technology are of course
well-known. The typical approach to mounting such an
array on an aircraft (similar to [1]) is shown in Figure 1.
The coordinate system for describing radiation patterns
in this work is also shown in Figure 1.
Since element spacing is an important factor in an endfire array, an antenna element needs to be compact (less
than half wavelength in length and breadth). An angled
dipole antenna [2] is useful since the dipole length of half
wavelength can be accommodated in a smaller width.
In addition to the above, the beam of the array should be
electronically steerable within a certain angle (typically
30) for practical use in searching and tracking.
Planar Yagi-Uda antennas [3-5] have generated a lot of
interest in phased array applications due to its suitability
for a wide range of applications such as wireless
34

communication systems, power combining, phased

arrays, active arrays as well as millimeter-wave imaging
arrays. It is of particular interest in this case because of
the ease with which the angled-dipole antenna can be
converted to a Yagi-Uda end-fire type. A suitable antenna
must not only have an end-fire beam pattern, but must
also have a good bandwidth (in excess of 25% of the full
S-band is desirable) as well as have a small dimension
of around 0.35 0.35 (to allow elements to be placed
very close to each other in the array).
In this paper, we present an S-band (2-4 GHz) end-fire
array designed to operate from 3 to 4 GHz (the measured
bandwidth was about half of this, due to limitations in
the test procedure, as will be described) and with frontto-back (f/b) ratio exceeding 15 dB. The array consists
of angled dipole antenna elements with microstrip feed
designed on a 0.03 thick, er=2.2 substrate.
The antenna element is detailed in Section II and Section
III deals with design fabrication and testing of small
arrays (up to 44). Section IV reports the experimental
validation of an 84 array, and is the most important part
of this work. Section V gives simulated data for azimuthal
beam-scanning capabilities of the 84 array.

2.

THE ANTENNA ELEMENT

2.1 Antenna Element Design

The design used in the antenna element is an angled
dipole antenna. Prior to this, a dipole antenna with
IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

balun [ 6] was investigated which gave excellent

characteristics but was marginally oversized for the
application. The concept of the angled dipole was
retained in the current design. This particular design
reduces the width of the antenna element by using
an angled dipole which also gives added advantages
of a wider frequency response and reduced mutual
coupling [2]. The design dimensions are shown in Figure 2.
It will be noticed that in addition to the basic design of [2]
this uses two directors, and the truncated ground plane
as a reflector. The main difference with the antenna in [2]
comes from the directors, which are necessary to
maintain a f/b ratio of 10 dB, in spite of the much smaller
ground plane size (dictated by a limit of 0.5l spacing in
end-fire arraysnote that the antennas in [2] were not
used in end-fire arrays). This structure was finalized
after numerous simulations (e.g., more directors and
reflectors, distributed on top and bottom layers, etc.).
Even better f/b ratio would have been desirable, but
could not be achieved, given the size constraint.
Both the parasitic elements (directors) are of identical
dimensions. The feed lines and dipole elements in
the front and reverse sides of the PCB are of identical
dimensions. The ground plane acts as a reflector, whereas
two identical directors help in increasing directivity
in the end-fire direction. An initial estimate for the
radiating element length is given by L=2L1=L1+L4=0.49eff,
Backward scan:
new end-fire array
= -150 to 150

Conventional side-scan
= -30 to -150

where, eff is an effective wavelength [7] (the term

wavelength is used loosely here, as the dipoles are not
guiding structures, but this terminology is fairly standard,
inspired by wire antennas). We have used 0 for eff.
For f=3.5 Ghz, this gives L=42 mm. Hence, the length of
the resonating dipole on each side of the substrate should
be 21 mm. However, after optimizing the design in CST
Microwave Studio [8,9], the length of the resonating
dipole has been fixed at 17.54 mm on each side.
The dimensions of the antenna element are shown in
Figure 2. L1=L4=17.54 mm, L2=15.72 mm, L3=35.19 mm,
L5=26 mm, L6=9.97 mm, W1=W3=W4=2 mm, W2=10.28
mm, W5=1.53 mm, S1=0.83 mm, S2=0.48 mm. The element
consists of an angled dipole antenna fed by broadsidecoupled balanced parallel strips. The angle of the dipole
is 45. The wide ground plane acts as a reflector as well
as helps in microstrip to parallel strip line transition. The
overall dimensions of the element is 0.37 00.39 0 for
0=90 mm.
The element was simulated in CST Microwave Studio
(used for all simulations in this work). The simulation
and fabrication of the element has been carried out in two
versions, namely, microstrip fed and probe fed [Figure 3].
This has been done keeping in mind that it may not be
possible for a planar array to be fed by a microstrip feed.

y
x

Conventional
side-scan
= 30 to 150
Forward scan:
new end-fire array
=-30 to 30

Figure 1: Conceptual mounting of the proposed endfire arrays (one for front and another for back), and the
reference coordinate system used.

Figure 2: Layout of angled dipole antenna, (a) bottom layer;

(b) top layer.
IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Figure 3: Fabricated antenna element (top and bottom

layers), (a) microstrip fed; (b) probe fed.
35

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

Probe feed is the more practical option in such cases.

Simulated and measured reflection coefficients for both
cases are shown in Figure 4 and radiation patterns are
in Figure 5.

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

2.2 Measurements
The return loss plot of the fabricated element [Figure 4]
shows a 10 dB bandwidth of >1 GHz in the best case
(measured), although this is not very realistic (loss
and spurious radiation at the connector play a big role
here). Realistic numbers, looking at simulated data for
the probe feed, give a bandwidth from 3.2 to 3.7 GHz,
with a best match at 3.3 GHz (l=90 mm). Subsequent
pattern measurements were mostly done at 3.3 GHz.
The far-field radiation pattern [Figure 5] of the fabricated
element gives a worst-case f/b ratio of 8 dB, whereas the
simulated f/b ratio is 10.7 dB. The deviation in the rear
side is attributable to the effects due to the end connector
of the fabricated element; it is more pronounced for the
microstrip feed, as expected. In an array, the co-axial
feed will be used; so, we have not attempted to improve
the microstrip-fed antennas. It is seen that the element is
quite reliable and its behavior can be accurately predicted
by numerical simulation.

3.

Figure 4: Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of

antenna element in dB (suffix 1 indicates microstrip feed
and 2 indicates probe feed).

DEVELOPMENT OF 22 AND 44 ARRAYS

3.1 Design and Simulation of Arrays

The design of arrays started from a consideration of
the inter-element spacing in end-fire arrays. It is well
known [7,10] that the spacing for a linear array should
not exceed 0/2 if multiple main beams (grating lobes)
are to be avoided. However, for a planar array (typically
10010 elements), the possibility of cancelling the spurious
main beams caused by the 100-element array factor by
the 10-element array factor exists in theory. Additionally,
plenty of information on designing planar arrays exists [11],
but in this case, it is not at all clear if any such design is
practical, because the radiation from elements at the back
travel through a host of printed antenna elements in front,
and can be expected to undergo significant scattering.
So, first a 22 array and then a 4x4 array with element
spacing of (3/4=67.5 mm in x) by (/2=45 mm in y) were
developed. First considering the 22 array, the elements
were excited with equal amplitude, but the phase of the
rear elements were shifted by 90 degrees (progressive phase
shift). The resulting far-field radiation pattern showed a
single main lobe in the end-fire direction and a back lobe
with an f/b ratio of 15 dB in simulation [Figure 6].
Furthermore, a 4x4 array was also designed and
simulated. It is observed from the far-field radiation
pattern that the f/b ratio improves to about 20 dB for
equal amplitude excitation [Figure 7]. The pattern also
36

Figure 5: Simulated and measured E plane far-field radiation

pattern of antenna element (suffix 1 indicates microstrip
feed and 2 indicates probe feed).
90

0
-10

120

-20

60

150

-30

30

-40
-50
-60

180

-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0

210

330
240

270

300

Figure 6: 22 array with uniform excitation (simulated).

contains a large number of side-lobes, with the peak
side-lobe level being about 15 dB, and we can see grating
IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

lobes around 120 and 240 as expected, but these are

small. It is further observed that if the amplitude is
scaled binomially (in this case, 3:1 for inner and outer
elements), the grating and side-lobes are minimized
[Figure 8].
These results encourage us in developing such arrays with
a 3/4 spacing, but as we will see next, the experimental
results are not so encouraging.

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

3.2 Fabrication and Measurements

Prior to proceeding with fabrication, it was decided for
simplicity of design that the antenna elements of the
array will be fed through a power divider and phaseshifting network which will be embedded in the array.
For power division, Wilkinson power dividers, as
reported in [12], have been used with the layout shown
in Figure 9. The dimensions of the power divider (in
mm.) are given in Figure 9.

The 22 array was first simulated in CST Microwave

Studio along with embedded power dividers on a 0.76
mm thick, er=2.2 substrate. The element separation in the
radiating direction was kept at 3/4, whereas in the nonradiating direction, it was half wavelength. In addition
to the power divider, required phase shifts have been
provided by asymmetric positioning of the power divider.
Since the antenna elements use double-sided structure,
part of the structure containing the phase shifters are in
microstrip, which changes to parallel strip prior to feeding
the antenna elements [Figure 10]. The simulation results
indicated an f/b ratio of 15 dB. On fabrication [Figure 11]
and testing, the far-field radiation plot of the fabricated
array gives an f/b ratio of 17.5 dB [Figure 12].
Proceeding further, a 44 array was similarly designed
and simulated in CST Microwave Studio. This design
is much more complicated due to the larger size of the
array. The power dividers have been accommodated
in a very small space and additional delay lines have

Figure 9: Dimensions of Wilkinson power divider.

Figure 7: Simulated far-field radiation pattern plot of 44

array (uniform excitation).

Figure 10: Design dimensions of 22 array with embedded

power dividers (a) top layer; (b) bottom layer.

Figure 8: Simulated far-field radiation pattern plot of 44

array (binomial excitation).
IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Figure 11: Fabricated 22 array with embedded power

dividers: (a) top and; (b) bottom layers.
37

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

been incorporated to achieve phase shifts [Figure 13].

The f/b ratio of the simulated array is 27 dB. The array
was fabricated on a similar substrate [Figure 14] and on
testing, the f/b ratio was found to be 18 dB [Figure 15]. It
is quite remarkable that despite the complicated powerdividing network seen in Figures 13 and 14 (these lines
are also substantially parallel to the radiated electric
field), the array works roughly as predicted by the
simulations, and even shows the expected grating lobes
around 110 in Figure 15. We can see the grating lobes
are quite prominent now, and there is no alternative to
using a spacing below /2. However, the correlation
between simulated and measured results gives us
confidence that in a practical case with probe feeds (and
remote power division network), such arrays, and even
larger ones will work quite successfully.

4.

DEVELOPMENT OF 32-ELEMENT ARRAYS

As discussed earlier, an array with element spacing

of 0.4=36 mm will avoid grating lobes. Furthermore,
the array elements can be excited using Chebyshev
polynomials [7,13] for good performance. We have
simulated a number of arrays with excitation for
Chebyshev pattern with 26 dB side-lobe level.

4.1 Simulations
A 44 array (excluding the power division network for
this and other simulations in this section) with a spacing
of 0.4 was simulated with Chebyshev amplitude
excitation coefficients and progressive phase shift of 144.
The resulting far-field radiation pattern gives an f/b ratio
of 7.2 dB [Figure 16]. These results are quite poor, and are
caused by the reduced spacing. However, the f/b ratio is
found to improve considerably with larger arrays. A 4x8
array was simulated with a spacing of 0.4 and excited
as above. The f/b ratio of this array is 25 dB [Figure 17].
There is a significant improvement in radiation pattern
on addition of a row of dummy elements in the sides and
rear following [14,15], excluding the radiating direction
(these are matched terminated and not excited). This is
shown in Figure 18. The improved performance basically
stems from the fact that all excited elements radiate
in roughly the same environment, as opposed to the
very different environment seen by the elements at
the edges if dummy elements are not used. For these
relatively small arrays, the elements at the edges make
us a significant fraction of radiators, and hence cannot
be ignored.

Figure 13: A 44 end-fire array, (a) bottom laver, showing

various spacings; (b) top layer.

Figure 12: Simulated and measured far-field radiation

pattern of 22 array with embedded power divider.

Figure 14: Fabricated 44 end-fire array (top and bottom

layers).
38

Figure 15: Simulated and measured far-field radiation

pattern of 44 end-fire array with embedded power divider.
IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

To further explore the functioning of the non-uniform

amplitude array, a 216 element array (which has a
column of 16 elements in the end-fire direction (x)
arranged in two rows as shown in Figure 19) was
simulated and excited as above which gave an f/b ratio
of 25 dB [Figure 20]. The Chebyshev case of Figure 21
is the most promising result among these larger arrays.

-20
-30

90

120

30

180

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

-50

-20

210

240

330
240

270

300

Figure 18: Simulated radiation pattern of 48 array excited

with Chebyshev coefficients on addition of dummy
elements.

330

210

-10

30

180

-50

-40
-30

150

-40

-20

-40
-60

60

-40

60

150

120

-20

-60
0
-10

90

270

300

Figure 16: Simulated far-field plot of 44 array excited with

Chebyshev coefficients.

Figure 19: (a) Layout of 216 element array (bottom and

top views) and (b) bottom view of 216 elements and
additional dummy elements (shown filled).

(a)
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0

120

90

60

150

90

30

120

-10
-20

180

210

330
240

270
(b)

300

Figure 17: (a) Structure of 4x8 array with and without

dummy elements (shown in black) and (b) Simulated farfield plot of 48 array without dummy elements excited
with Chebyshev coefficients.
IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

60

150

-30

30

-40
-50
-60

180

-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0

330

210
240

270

300

Figure 20: Simulated radiation pattern of 216 array excited

with Chebyshev coefficients.
39

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

The side lobes in the radiating direction are minimal and

of ~30 dB level. It is thus clear that the planar end-fire
array is extendable to a large array size which makes it
eligible for practical use in radars.
4.2 Fabrication and Testing
The photograph of a 48 element array is shown in
Figure 21. This is easy to fabricate, but for testing, to
excite the 32 elements with the appropriate phase shifts
is a difficult task without a dedicated facility for this
purpose. Hence, only uniform excitation could be used.

The measured E (x-y plane, f being the angular variable)

and H (x-z plane, angle from +x going towards +z being
the angular variable) radiation patterns at 3.33 GHz are
shown in Figures 25 and 26, respectively. Simulated
results here are for just the array, without any feeding
network, since the whole structure was too big for our
simulator.

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

The testing was achieved in the following way:

A 1-to-32 corporate power splitter using Wilkinson
power dividers was first made [Figure 22]. The specialty
of the layout is that the outputs are all located exactly
below the 32 feed points of the array.
The power splitter is placed below the array, with its
ground facing the array, and the 32 outputs of the power
splitter are connected to the antenna elements by strip-line
delay lines (4 sets of delay lines, with 8 delay lines in each
set as shown in Figure 23). Strip-line, being fully shielded,
was preferred over the easier-to-fabricate microstrip to
reduce interference with the radiated signals.

Figure 23: Picture of a set of 8 strip-line delay lines (opened

up to show the 2 substrates, which are screwed together
during operation).

The complete setup is shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24: Array ready for testing.

Figure 21: Picture of 48 array (top view only).

Figure 22: Picture of 1-to-32 power splitter.

40

0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
-55
-50
-45
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0

120

90

________ Measured results

60
- - - - - - - - Simulated results

150

30

180

210

330
240

300
270
E Plane pattern

Figure 25: E-plane pattern of 48 array.

IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

As we can see, the H-plane pattern is fairly consistent

with the simulation, while the E-plane pattern matches
the simulation only in the main beam (and partially in the
back lobe). This is expected since the major disturbance
is caused by the strip-line ground planes for directions
away from end-fire in the E-plane. The 3-dB beamwidths are approximately 20 for E-plane and 50 for
H-plane, which gives a directivity of approximately 15
dB, which is very close to the simulated directivity of 15.5
dB. Note that these beam-widths can be substantially
reduced by following a proper excitation for end-fire
Chebyshev pattern [13] when independent transceivers
are available for each element, as expected in actual
airborne application.
The final confirmation that the structure works
reasonably well is obtained from gain measurement.
The measured gain (strictly speaking realized gain
since this includes the effect of input mismatch) of this
array is shown in Figure 27. This was obtained in the
conventional way, by measuring transmitted power (fed
to a 9 dB standard gain horn) and received power at the
connector of our array with a spectrum analyzer (Agilent

0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
-55
-50
-45
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0

90

120

______ Measured results

60

- - - - - Simulated results

150

30

180

330

210
240

8564EC). The gain was also measured when half of the

space between the array and the power divider was
filled with absorbing material. This may be necessary
in a real array, because a large ground plane (such as
an aircraft body) below the array will probably severely

Figure 28: Measured |S21| for (a) power divider and

(b) delay line.

0
-10
-20
150
-30
-40
-50
-60 180
-50
-40
-30
210
-20
-10
0

120

90

30

330
240

270

Figure 26: H-plane pattern of 48 array.

Gain (dB)
With absorber
Without absorber

12
10

9 dB

8
6
4
2
0

2.4

2.6

2.8

3.2
3.4
3.133.55
Freq (GHz)

3.6

60

300

Figure 29: Radiation patterns of the uniformly excited 48

array with phases for end-fire, 15off end-fire, and 30 off
end-fire.

300
270
H Plane pattern

14

__________ Normal end fire

__ __ __ __ 15 degree
................... 30 degree

3.8

Figure 27: Measured gain of the 48 array.

IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0

120

90

__________ Normal end fire

__ __ __ __ 15 degree
................... 30 degree
60
30

150

180

330

210
240

300
270

Figure 30: Radiation patterns of the Chebyshev excited 48

array with phases for end-fire, 15off end-fire, and 30 off
end-fire.
41

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

disrupt the radiation in the end-fire direction (ideally a

null direction considering the image radiator). For our
small array, however, the effect of the image was not
observed.
As we can see, we get an operating bandwidth of 3.13
to 3.55 GHz, with a gain >9 dB. The reason for selecting
a figure of 9 dB is as follows:

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

We have seen that the directivity is 15 dB, but to get an

idea of the antenna efficiency, we first measure the losses
in the feed network with a network analyzer. Figure 28a
shows the losses in the power divider (1 dB) and the
Figure 28b shows the losses in the delay line (actually
due to the connections at the ends of the delay line).
A simple SMA co-axial connector to microstrip line gives
about 0.2 dB loss at this frequency; from this, we can
conclude that the power splitter (which should ideally
show |S21|=15 dB) gives a loss of 1.36 dB (=16.76
dB-15 dB-0.2dBx2). The delay line has a loss of 1.8 dB.
One co-axial connector at the input gives 0.2 dB. This
gives an overall loss of 3.36 dB. Since our best-case gain
(without absorber) was about 10 dB, a directivity of 15.5
dB corresponds to 60% efficiency. For the worst-case
gain, the efficiency becomes 48.5%. These are acceptable
figures for a prototype antenna efficiency. For the case
with absorber, around half of the power is further
dissipated.

5. BEAM STEERING
It will naturally be desirable to steer the beam in the
azimuthal plane (x-y) for radar applications. We see
from simulation that this is possibly up to about 25
(this actually corresponds to the excitation phases set
for 30), after which a spurious lobe (expected by
symmetry) becomes quite high. Figure 29 shows the case
for uniform excitation and Figure 30 shows the case for
Chebyshev excitation.

6. CONCLUSION
Studies of planar end-fire arrays using a specially designed
end-fire element in various configurations have been
presented. It is concluded that a planar array with 0.4
element spacing in the end-fire direction with Chebyshev
excitation and 0.5 spacing in the transverse direction is very
suitable for airborne radar systems. The measured f/b ratio
of 15 dB with uniform excitation and simulated f/b ratio of
25 dB with Chebyshev excitation give an indication that f/b

42

ratio better than 40 dB should be achievable for a 10010

array, which is expected in radars.
The presented designs are suitable for large arrays
(typically 10010 for front and a similar one for back)
with little weight penalty as they are fully planar, and
have sufficient bandwidth for radar applications. They
can be conveniently fed through co-axial connectors in
the standard probe configuration.
Currently, larger arrays and their performance over a
large ground plane appropriate for airborne antennas
is being investigated.

REFERENCES
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

R Hendrix, Aerospace system improvements enabled by modern

phased array radar. IEEE Radar Conference, 2008. (RADAR 08).
Rome, 26-30 pp. 1-6, May 2008.
R A Alhalabi, and G M Rebeiz, High efficiency angled-dipole
antennas for millimeter-wave phased array applications, IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 56, No. 10, pp.
3136-42, October 2008.
Y Qian, W R Deal, N Kaneda, and T Itoh A uniplanar quasi-Yagi antenna
with wide bandwidth and low mutual coupling characteristics. Proc.
IEEE AP-S International Symposium, Vol. 2, pp. 924-7, 1999.
H K Kan, R B Waterhouse, A M Abbosh, and M E Bialkowski, Simple
Broadband Planar CPW-Fed Quasi-yagi Antenna, IEEE, Antennas
and wireless propagation Letters, Vol. 6, pp. 18-20, 2007.
W R Deal, N Kaneda, J Sor, Y Qian, and T Itoh, A new quasi-Yagi
antenna for planar active antenna arrays, IEEE Transactions on
Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 48, pp. 910-8, Jun 2000.
B Edward, and Rees, A broadband printed dipole with integrated
balun, Microwave Journal, May 1987
C A Balanis, Antenna Theory Analysis and Design, Second edition,
John Wiley and Sons Inc., New Jersey, 2005.
CST Microwave Design Studio (software), www.cst.de.
T Weiland, M Timm, and I Munteanu, A practical guide to 3-D
simulation, IEEE Microwave magazine, Dec 2008.
Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook, P.Bhartia, Inder Bahl, R.Garg,
A.Ittipiboon; Artech House, 2001.
L A Greda, A Walstra, M Heckler, and A Dreher, A simulation tool
for design and analysis of planar antenna arrays, IEEE Antennas and
Propagation Society International Symposium, 2008. AP-S 2008, pp.
1-4, July 2008.
N Misran, M Tariqul Islam, and KJ Ng, A feed network for a novel E-H
shaped microstrip patch antenna array, Journal of Applied Sciences
8(10), pp. 1982-6, 2008.
D G Babas, and J N Sahalos, On the design of Chebyshev Endfire
Arrays subject to a performance index, Electrical Engineering,
Springer, Vol. 90, no. 2, Dec 2007.
S Edelberg, and A Oliner, Mutual coupling effects in large antenna
arrays: Part 1Slot arrays, IRE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagatio, Vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 286-97, May 1960.
Y C Beng. Effects of mutual coupling in small dipole array antennas,
Ph.D. Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, Mar.
2002.

IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

Sanyal A, etal.: Planar End-fire Array in S-band for Airborne Applications

AUTHORS
Abhijit Sanyal completed M.Tech from I.I.T.Delhi in 2009,
and is presently serving in the Indian Navy.
E-mail: abhijitx@gmail.com

Ananjan Basu was born Aug 12, 1969. He received the

B.Tech degree in electrical engineering and M.Tech
degree in communication and radar engineering from
the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (I.I.T.DeIhi), in
1991 and 1993 respectively, and the PhD. degree in
electrical engineering from University of California at
Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1998. He has been with the
Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, I.I.T.DeIhi as an Assistant Professor
(2000-2005) and Associate Professor (since 2005). His specialization is in
microwave and millimetre-wave component design and characterization.

Downloaded by [117.207.215.159] at 09:35 10 March 2015

E-mail: ananjan_b@yahoo.com
Shiban Kishen Koul received the B.E. degree in Electrical
Engineering from the Regional Engineering College,
Srinagar in 1977, and the M.Tech and PhD degrees in
Microwave Engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi, India. He is a Professor at the Centre
for Applied Research in Electronics, Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi where he is involved in teaching and
research activities. His research interests include: RF MEMS, Device modeling,
Millimeter wave IC design and Reconfigurable microwave circuits including
antennas. He is the Chairman of M/S Astra Microwave Pvt. Ltd, a major private
company involved in the Development of RF and Microwave systems in India.
He is author/co-author of 192 Research Papers and 7 state-of-the art books.
He has successfully completed 25 major sponsored projects, 50 consultancy
projects and 30 Technology Development Projects. He holds 7 patents and
4 copyrights.
Dr. Koul is a Fellow of the IEEE, USA, Fellow of the Indian National Academy
of Engineering (INAE) India and Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and
Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) India, He has received Gold Medal

by the Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Calcutta (1977);

S.K.Mitra Research Award (1986) from the IETE for the best research paper;
Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Young Scientist Award (1986);
International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist Award (1987);
the top Invention Award (1991) of the National Research Development
Council for his contributions to the indigenous development of ferrite phase
shifter technology; VASVIK Award (1994) for the development of Ka- band
components and phase shifters; Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal (1995) from
the Institution of Electronics and Communication Engineers (IETE); Academic
Excellence award (1998) from Indian Government for his pioneering
contributions to phase control modules for Rajendra Radar, Shri Om Prakash
Bhasin Award (2009) in the field of Electronics and Information Technology,
and teaching excellence award from IIT Delhi in 2012.
Dr. Koul is a distinguished IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Lecturer
for the year 2012-2014.
E-mail: shiban_koul@hotmail.com
Mahesh Abegaonkar received his Ph.D. in Physics from
the Department of Physics, University of Pune in 2002.
He served as Post-Doctoral Researcher and Assistant
Professor with Kyungpook National University, Daegu,
South Korea, from 2002-2004.He is an Assistant
Professor at C.A.R.E. I.I.T.Delhi since 2005. His research
interests include multiband, wideband, reconfigurable
and UWB antennas and filters. He is a recipient of the Young Engineer Award
2008 of the Indian National Academy of Engineering
E-mail: mpjosh@care.iitd.ernet.in
Suma Varughese serves as Scientist in the Centre for Airborne Systems
D.R.D.O. Govt. of India.
E-mail: suma_sr_v@yahoo.com
P. B. Venkatesh Rao serves as Scientist in the Centre for Airborne Systems,
D.R.D.O. Govt. of India.
E-mail: pbvrao@gmail.com

DOI: 10.4103/0377-2063.94080; Paper No JR 386_10; Copyright 2012 by the IETE

IETE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH | VOL 58 | ISSUE 1 | JAN-FEB 2012

43