o 000 Transmit Measured Data

xxx Receive Measured Data

-5 ~
\ RECEIVE
NO. I
-10 r - \ r- K
r---~ ~-.......
Ik

'I
/
_ _ ~".lo.~ -...!
Fig. 5. Artist's Drawing of a Multilayer RF Manifold CD
"'0 ~
w
-15 \ "TRANSMIT
J

/ \
0
:::>
I- V
-.J
a... -20 V "-

II /'
~ ~
<l:

-25 1\
\
Fig. 6. Photograph of a Manifold Assembly.
II RECEIVE
4. A 1:10 dual series feed utilizing 17 overlap directional Iv NO.2
5.
couplers and 8 pill terminations occupies a second layer.
Two other layers contain the nine serpentine transmission
-30
lines required to equalize the phase through the dual series
feed.
\
6. Low loss and reproducible phase characteristics were achieved
-35
by heat rolling the foam panels to .125 ±o02 inch thickness
and controlling the uniformity of the epoxy cement layers
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
with each glue line 0.75 mil thick. MAN I FOLD PORTS
7. Reproducible receive amplitude distributions were achieved by
fabricating solid dielectric couplers with tabs and inserting Fig. 7. Comparison of Measured and Theoretical Manifold Data.
them into cutouts in the foam stripline. The tabs were
soldered to the copper/mylar circuits. A pair of common
aluminum foil ground-plane covers the couplers and the foam adjacent layers being joined. A right angle stripline connection
panels of the receive stripline layer. of this type can give rise to higher order waveguide modes and
8. Adjacent stripline layers utilize a common 3 mil aluminum foil are suppressed by using metallic "horse shoes" which are
ground-plane. capacitively coupled through the mylar central circuit layer
9. Coaxial connectors make electrical connections to the assem- and also to the 3 mil aluminum ground-plane (see Figure 5).
bly via a soldered center conductor and by sandwiching tab 11. The entire unit can be assembled in two gluing operations. The
extensions of the foil ground-planes between the connector first generates foam/foil panels and the second cements the
flange and special nut bars located behind the tab extensions circuits between the panels.
and recessed into the foam panels. 12. The electrical performance of the entire assembly can be
10. Internal interlayer connections are made by soldering hour- measured by mechanically clamping the parts together before
glass shaped brass pins between the conductors on the two the second gluing operation.

MICROSTRIP PHASED ARRAY ANTENNAS disturb the aerodynamic flow, nor would it protrude inwardly to
disrupt the mechanical structure.
With a microstrip (a single side etched) printed circuit board
by antenna, the two aforementioned requirements are nearly attained.
ROBERT MUNSON In addition, another requirement, the cost to customer, would be
Ball Brothers Research Corporation fulfUled because the single printed circuit (PC) board (microstrip) is
Boulder, Colorado manufactured with low cost photo etch processes used to make
73CH0777-3EI-66E electronic printed circuit boards. This paper will discuss microstrip
phased array of three general types.
1. Wraparound microstrip antennas that wrap around missiles,
rockets, and satellites to provide omnidirectional coverage.
2. Flat, thin, microstrip antennas that provide high gain fan
Introduction
beam or pencil beam performance.
High velocity aircraft, missiles, and rockets require conformal, 3. Flat (or curved) thin microstrip antenna with pin diodes
thin antennas. Ideally, an antenna "paper thin" would best suit the added to the microstrip substrate to provide a beam steering
aerodynamic and mechanical engineer. This antenna would neither capability.

281
 Microstrip Wraparound Antennas L =1I'D =31.4"
Microstrip (single PC board) antennas wrap around missiles, L _ L~ _ 31.4"y'2As _ 31.4·1.6 _ .
rockets, and satellites to provide omnidirectional telemetry, o- ~- 5" - 5 - 10.05
command, or beacon coverage. They are similar in performance
(coverage and bandwidth) to stripline (two layer PC board) antennas NF> 10.05 and NF can be 2,4,8,16,32,64, etc.
discussed by Waterman and Henry,! Campbell,2 and Johnson. 3
Missiles, rockets, and satellites often require a continuous band of
So: NF = 16
radiators or a continuous radiator to ensure a continuous antenna Two types of feed network are used to accomplish a 2,4, 8, 16,
pattern around the roll plane cp. If a roll pattern with 1 to 2 dB etc., power split. Most often tapered lines, Fig. 2a, are used to
variation is provided, the telemetry signal received from a missile, transfer a 50 .11 impedance to lOOn so that it can be combined in
rocket, or satellite will be continuous throughout spin and maneu- parallel with another 100 .11 line. The same procedure is shown in
vering of the vehicle. In general, stripline and microstrip antennas Fig. 2b for a quarter-wave transformer technique. The impedance of
<
will produce bandwidths (VSWR 2:1) of 30 MHz to 100 MHz in the quarter-wave transformer is given by:
the L-Band and S-Band regions.
The advantage of microstrip antennas over stripline antennas is ZTransformer = ..JZin X Zout = ..J 100.50 ~ 70.11
their simplicity.
• Only one printed circuit board is required
• The single board is photo etched on one side only (no front to
back registration is required)
• No board alignments are required
The microstrip wraparound antenna consists of two parts:
,---------------------,
I MICROSTRIP RADIATOR I
• Microstrip feed network L_ _~

• Microstrip radiator

Microstrip Feed Network

The microstrip feed network (Fig. 1) is a parallel (corporate)
feed network where two-way power splits and equal line lengths 50n
result in equal power and equal phase to all of the feed points. INPUT

There is virtually no limit to the number of power divisions 2, 4, 8,

16, 32, 64, etc., that can occur in a microstrip feed network. The
number of feeds (power divisions) required is dictated by the
microstrip radiator. The number of feed points must exceed the Fig. 2a Tapered Line Parallel Feed Network
number of wavelengths in the dielectric in the long L direction by:

"'O"'=
>
Number of feeds = NF LD = Length in Wavelengths in the

. . = __
DIelectrIC L..;T;r_ r-----------------~
11.0

l:r =the dielectric constant of the board material being used

l:r = 2.45 is typical
Ll-----~i'.. J
5O~n 50n 70n lOOn 70n 50n

WRAPPEO
ON MISSILE

t=D=:j
O~WRAPPED
~TOSHAPE

Fig. 2b Quarter Wave Transformer Parallel Feed Network

Fig. 1 Microstrip Wrap-Around Antenna
The number of feed points must exceed Lo if only the TEM mode
is to be excited on the microstrip radiator. This mode will in tum
excite only TMOM modes in free space (no roll pattern variation). If
<
NF Lo then higher order modes will be excited on the microstrip
radiator. These modes will excite TMNM modes in free space as
discussed by R.F. Harrington.4 The excitation of higher order
modes on the microstrip radiator will result in breakup of the roll
(CP) plane patterns. As an example, the number of feeds required for
an S-Band 2290 MHz (11.0 =5") wraparound for a 10" missile would
be:
Microstrip Radiator
The invention of the microstrip radiator is what makes the
microstrip antenna a reality. The microstrip radiator for missile
wraparound antennas (Fig. 1) is a long band of metal (L =1I'D-Iong
X W-Wide). The length L is equal to the circumference of the
missile. The width W varies from 0.15(Ao/~) to 0.49(Ao/~)
and acts as a continuous tuning element. The tuning element (the
continuous cavities) matches the external radiation impedance of
the microstrip radiator.
The thinness of the cavity increases the Q of cavity and
dominates the Q or bandwidth of the antenna. The bandwidth is a
function of WIT = Width of radiator/thickness of microstrip and
both theoretical and experimental bandwidths are shown in Fig. 3.
Several methods are currently being explored at Ball Brothers
Research Corporation to increase the bandwidth of microstrip
antennas.

282
 )40 I 99 . 999
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I
180 At!" TOMAIlAWK 99..997~

1'0
i .....,
m 99 . 99
-THEORETICAL

"z
..
100 I
i A,;MEASuIlED ~
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110
"."£Ll '''+L I
AWATERWAN REF NO t
99. 9

80
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" 99
2. ~ 10 I~ 20 40 80
O+O--~,--~,. -->~. . --.~·. -C,~""~,~,,,~,~·. ~...~. ~,·.~3'0"~"~II"~'~'''''~ WRAP·AROUNO MICROSTRIP ANTENNA' MISSILE DIAMETER IN INCHES
~ D ~ f2 f2 f2 f2 f2 ~ f2 f2 f2
THICKN[SS-(VSWR<2.1)

Fig. 4 Pattern Coverage Versus Diameter for Microstrip ~rap-Around

Antennas on a Smooth Cyl i nder
Fig. 3 S-Band Bandwidth (VSWR<2:1) as a Function of Antenna
Thickness

Performance of Wraparound Telemetry Antenna

30,----------------,---------------,
Since the telemetry bandwidth required is less than 10 MHz (and 28

usually 0.1 MHz) the microstrip antennas easily satisfy the "
telemetry bandwidth requirements. "
22

The pattern coverage depends on the diameter of the missile. ~ -t---------l'";.<:-~EXP"'"E.TAl "OOEl 3",5" ARRAY
The limiting factor in omnidirectional pattern coverage is a singular GAIN
IN
16 (GAIN PATTERN FIGURE 6)

hole at the tip and tail of the missile which gets narro,wer as the db 14
12
diameter of the missile increases. For instance, a IS-inch diameter 10-t-~E-----------~--------------~

antenna for the Aerobee missile produces a null along the missile 8

axis of radius one degree at the -8 dB gain level. The fraction area
with gain below -8 dB is given by:
360 I ~
W'H =0": LENGTH OF ONE SlOE Of A SOUAR[ ARRAY IN INCHES
180

sin 0 dO dtf> + II sin o dO dtf> Fi g. 5 Gain Versus Size for Flat Microstrip Arrays (Frequency is
=
o 179
X-Band or 10 GHz and AD 1.18")
0

360 180 The attenuation is dependent on frequency and line length at

ffsin 0 do dtf> X-Band and for a 1/32-inch microstrip line Q = 0.12 dB/in. The
length of microstrip feed line is half of the height plus half of the
00
width.

~ 0.0002 L= w +1!.
2 2
Conversely, the amount of area with gain above -8 dB is 0.9998 or therefore
99.98 percent coverage with gain greater than -8 dB.
The percent coverage is only a function of diameter and is = 1/2 ajinch (W" + H")
Q
independent of antenna thickness. The theoretical and experimental
at X-Band for a 5" X 3" antenna Q =0.48 dB (8).
pattern coverage (for microstrip antennas on a smooth cylinder) at
Gain as a function of size for a square microstrip array is shown
-8 dB gain are given in Fig. 4.
in Fig. 5.
An experimental model 3" X 5" X 1/32" was built and tested
Flat Plate Microstrip Antennas and corumned a gain (Fig. 6) in excess of the theoretical
predictions. The error is within the ±1/2 dB expected error in
Unwrapping omni wraparound antennas and mounting them flat
antenna gain measurement.
on a metal surface or in free space produces a high gain fan beam
The microstrip antenna offers high gain for a low cost. It also
antenna pattern. By arraying severiu antennas side by side, a pencil
offers a low profIle antenna that can operate flush mounted to a
beam is produced. Theoretically, the microstrip radiators produce a
metal surface.
uniform illumination of the aperture and the gain of a uniformly
illuminated aperture is given by SilverS as I believe printed circuit board microstrip antennas will bring to
the antenna world the dollar savings that printed circuits have
brought to the electronics field over the past 15 years.
4'11'A
G o =--
X2
An Electrical Scan Microstrip Phased Array

In practice, the microstrip feed line attenuation subtracts from this By adding a third component "pin diodes" for phase shifting,
gain Fig. 7, to the microstrip substrate a minimum cost integrated
microstrip antenna is attained.
The process of phasing the radiators to scan the beam requires
G Actual = 10 Log ( '""?:2
4'11'A) - Q breaking up the microstrip radiators into individual elements.
Conceptual design and initial working models are currently under
CYr-ine =ajinch X L" development and no results are available for publication at this time.

283