Proceedings of ISAP2012, Nagoya, Japan

1D4-2

Linear Array of Longitudinal Slots

Excited by Metal Supports
on a Hollow Rectangular Coaxial Line
#

Makoto Sano, Jiro Hirokawa, Makoto Ando

Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Eng., Tokyo Institute of TechnologyFirst Address, First email
S3-20, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan
{msano, jiro, mando}@antenna.ee.titech.ac.jp

1. Introduction
Due to the possibilities of high gain, high efficiency and height reduction, slotted
waveguide array antennas have been widely used in many millimeter-wave applications such as
radar systems and fixed wireless access systems. The fabrication technique by diffusion bonding of
laminated thin plates ensures low cost and high precision of the slotted waveguide array antennas
[1]. However, the slotted waveguide array antennas have limitation for wide beam scanning without
grating lobes because the width of a rectangular waveguide is more than 0.5 0, typically 0.7-0.8 0,
to support the dominant TE10 mode.
A rectangular coaxial line is one candidate for the width reduction of a transmission line. A
linear array of inclined slots on a hollow rectangular coaxial line with the width of 0.4 0 was
proposed by Yamaguchi et al. [2]. The linear array is realized by laminating several aluminium
plates and screwing them. Since the inner conductor is supported only at the both ends, stable
operation is limited to a small array. For a larger array, we have considered the connection between
inner and outer conductors with metal supports, and excitation of a longitudinal slot by the support
[3]. The diffusion bonding is adopted to form the support and to realize perfect electrical contact
between the plates. This paper presents a linear array of the longitudinal slots on a hollow
rectangular coaxial line in the 60 GHz band.

2. Excitation of a Longitudinal Slot and Design of a Linear Array

Since current of the dominant TEM mode on the outer conductor of a rectangular coaxial
line flows in the direction of the line, a longitudinal slot is not excited. To make the current cross
the slot, metal support for the inner conductor is placed under the slot as shown in Fig.1. The
coupling of the slot is controlled by changing the offsets p and q. The offset q has more effect on the
coupling control. Additional support for reflection suppression is not placed in this study, which is
different from out previous study [3].
The equivalent circuit of the longitudinal slot is derived for the design of a linear array. In
general, a resonant shunt array is realized by cascading slots with the conductance determined by
the number of the slots. However, the analysis of the slot on the rectangular coaxial line reveals that
the slot is not simply expressed as a shunt element in the equivalent circuit [4]. When the offset q is
small, the equivalent circuit of the slot is expressed as a T network shown in Fig.2 due to the
predominant shunt element. But as the offset q becomes larger, the series elements become
predominant because of the current perturbation in the direction of the line; therefore, the equivalent
circuit becomes a network. The T-network components for the slot with the small offset q as a
function of the slot length are shown in Fig.3.
A 4-element linear array is designed by using the equivalent circuit model. Fig.4 and 5
show the linear array and the equivalent circuit, respectively. The excitation coefficient (amplitude
A and phase P) of a slot is given by

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 V V
A = Re A C
ZA

P = arg ( I C )

V VB
+ Re C

ZB

+ Re YC VC

(1)
(2)

The input impedance is

Z in =

V1
I1

(3)

The set of the slot parameters (offsets pi, qi and length li) to give uniform distribution and input
matching at the design frequency of 60 GHz is determined with the help of the conjugate gradient
method. The determined slot parameters are shown in Table 1. In order to prevent mutual coupling
between the slots, the spacing of the slots is 0 and the distance of the last slot from the shorted wall
is 0.75 0. The grating lobes in the end-fire direction due to the spacing 0 will be suppressed by the
element pattern of the longitudinal slot.

3. Experimental Results
The linear array is fabricated by diffusion bonding of laminated thin copper plates. The
linear array is fed by a standard rectangular waveguide for the V-band (WR-15) with a waveguidecoaxial transition. The reflection coefficient is measured with a vector network analyzer. The effect
of the transition is eliminated from the measured data by using TRL calibration. The measured
reflection is compared with the simulation result by HFSS in Fig.6(a). Although the frequency shift
of approx. 1 GHz between the measurement and the design is observed, the measured result has
same tendency as the designed one. The narrow bandwidth of 1.5% for the reflection below 14 dB
(VSWR=1.5) is confirmed in the measurement. The narrow bandwidth comes from the array design
procedure in which the impedance matching is considered only at the input port and at the design
frequency.
Figure 6(b) shows the frequency characteristic of the gain. The measured gain is 10.3 dBi at
the design frequency. The frequency shift is similarly observed to the reflection result; the measured
data is shifted toward lower frequency by approx. 1 GHz. The 1 dB-down gain bandwidth is 2.8%.
The radiation pattern in the H plane is shown in Fig.7. The measured pattern is in good
agreement with the design. The large sidelobes around the angles of 60 deg. come from the slot
spacing of 0.

4. Conclusion
The 4-element linear array of longitudinal slots on a hollow rectangular coaxial line has
been demonstrated. The longitudinal slot excited by metal support is expressed like a compound slot
in terms of the equivalent circuit, and the linear array has been designed by using equivalent Tnetwork circuit model. The linear array has been fabricated by diffusion bonding of laminated thin
copper plates. The narrow bandwidth of 1.5% for the reflection below 14 dB is obtained in the
measurement.
The bandwidth could be enhanced by improving the array design procedure of compound
slots. The input impedance should be taken into consideration at not only the input port, but also
each slot.

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Figure 1: Longitudinal slot on a rectangular coaxial line

Figure 2: T-network representation for the slot

1

Im(zB)

Re(yC)

Imaginary part

Real part

0.5

Re(zA)
Re(zB)

0.5
1
0.4

0.5

Slot length l (0)

0.5
0
0.5
1
0.4

0.6

(a) Real part

Im(yC)
Im(zA)

0.5

Slot length l (0)

(b) Imaginary part

Figure 3: T-network components for the slot (p = 0.3mm, q = 0.5mm)

Figure 4: Linear array of longitudinal slots

Figure 5: Equivalent circuit of the linear array

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0.6

Table 1: Slot parameters for the 4-element linear array

i
qi (0)
li (0)
pi (0)
1
0.082
0.008
0.49
2
0.088
0.012
0.49
3
0.088
0.018
0.49
4
0.082
0.024
0.49
15

Designed

Measured

10 Measured
VSWR=1.5

20

30
55

60

Gain (dBi)

Reflection (dB)

Designed

10

5
55

65

60

Frequency (GHz)

65

Frequency (GHz)

(a) Reflection

(b) Gain

Relative amplitude (dB)

Figure 6: Frequency characteristics of the linear array

0
Measured
Designed

10

20

30
90

45

45

Angle (GHz)

90

Figure 7: Radiation pattern in the H plane

References
[1] Miao Zhang, Jiro Hirokawa and Makoto Ando, Fabrication of a Slotted Waveguide Array at 94
GHz by Diffusion Bonding of Laminated Thin Plates, IEICE Tech. Rept., AP2008-35,
Jun.,2008.
[2] S. Yamaguchi, Y. Tahara, T. Takahashi, T. Nishino, Inclined slot array antennas on a
rectangular coaxial line, IEICE Tech. Rept., AP2010-12, Dec., 2010.
[3] M. Sano, J. Hirokawa and M. Ando, Excitation of a Longitudinal Slot on a Hollow Rectangular
Coaxial Line by Metal Support of the Inner Conductor, Proc. Int. Symp. Antennas Propagat.,
Oct. 2011.
[4] A. M. Rajeek and A. Chakraborty, Analysis of a wide compound slot-coupled parallel
waveguide coupler and radiator, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 802809, Apl. 1995.

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