74 IEEE

AND ‘PR4NSACTIOXS
ANTENNAS QN JANUARY
PROPACr4TION, 1974

element, array.The four-element +-plane circumferential pattern i

of Fig. 10 and the four-element &plane elevation pattern of Fig. 11
WMPPED
verify that an 18”beam is achieved by tbe 16-element array section. ON MISSILE

QFFERENCES

1‘
F.S . Gregor&ch. “-4 mechanically despun antenna for the Skynet
IDCSPLA communicat.ions sat,ellite,”in CommunicaiionSatellites
for the ( 0 ’ s . FeldmanandKelly,Eds. Cambridge. LIass.: M.I.T.
Press,1971,pp. 241-254.
T . S . Chu, “On t h e , p e of uniform circular arrays to obtain omni- WRAPPED
direct,lonal pat.terns. I R E Trans.Antennas P r o p ~ g ~ (Commun.
t. 1. TO SHAPE
vol.’AP-i. pp. 4 3 6 4 3 8 . Ogt. 1959.
L. I . Parad and R . L. Moynihan, “Split-tee powder divider, “ I E E E
T r a n s . Microware Theory Tech., ~ 0 1 MTT-13,
. pp. 91-95. Jan. 1965.
E. 3. Wilh<nson,An X-way hybrid power divider,” I R E Trans.
Miicrou‘are TheoryTech. (Corresp.),vol.MTT-8,pp. 116-11s. Jan. I I
1960.
R . C . Chapman and X. L Esum “Series diodeSP4T w i t c h for MICROSTRIP
sitellite applicat.ions.” in I h E E 1&9 X a t . Telecommun. Conf. R r c . ,
pp. 36E-1-36E-5. Dec. 1972.
J. H . Lange and B. E. Rose, “ A I’to A transformation of a three-ww
hybridjunction.” I E E E Trans. Microuare Theory Tech. (Corresp.), NETWORK
vol.MTT-17,pp. 789-790. Oct.1969.
W. S. Gregorwich and C . W. Westerman, “A pear-isoWopic micro-
dPave antenna for communications satellitq,’
in Cornnumicotion
Satellite Technology, Bargellini. Ed. Cambridge, 1 1 ~ s . : 3I.I.T. FEED / INPUT
Press, 1973. POINTS a : THICKNESSOF THE
PRINTED B C M D

Fig.1. Microstrip maparound antenna.

Conformal Microstrip Antennas and Microstrip Phased
Arrays
ROBERT E. MUNSON
Abstract-A new class of antennas usjng microstrips to form the
feed networks and radiators is presented in this communication.
Theseantennas have four distinct advantages: 1) cost, 2) per-
formance, 3) ease.of installation, gnd 4) the low proiile conformal
design. The application‘ of these antennas is limited to small band-
widths. Phased array5 using these techniques are alsodiscussed.
I. INTRODUCTION
High-ve1ocit.y aircraft, missiles, and rocketsrequire conformal,
thin antennas.Ideally, anantenna“paperthin“ n:ould best suit
the aerodynamic and mechanical engineer. Thisantenna would
neit.her disturbthe aerodynamic flow, nor would it protrude
inwardly to disrupt the mechanical structure.
With a microstrip (a single side etched) printed circuit board
antenna,the t ~ aforementioned
o goals are nearly attained. In
addition, the desire for a lower cost antenna can be met because
the single printedcircuit (PC) board’ (microstrip) antenna is
manufacturedwiththe Bamelow cost. photo-etch processes used
to makeelectronic printed circuit boards. The single board is
photo etchedon one ’sjde only (no front-to-back registration is
required) ; no board alignments are required.
The microstpip phased array to be discussed is an antenna in-
corporating the basic radiating aperture w7it.h its associated mirro-
wave feed syst.em all printed on the outside of a printedcirruit.
board. It is a new microstrip device’ that includes an efficient.
elect.rically thin microstrip radiatorand integrated feed net,work,
mat.ching network, phasing network, switching network, and filt.er
network, if required. ‘
Currently, solid-state components are also addeddirectlytu
this board to provide pscillators, amplifiers, phase shifters, switches,
and receivers. It would appear that the feed lines would interfere
wit.h the radiation but they do not beeause theyare elecbrically
close tb the ground plane which is the back of (he antenna, and
because the feed lines’ are perpendicular to the electric field being
emitted by’the radiator, Le., a metal septum perpendicular tn the
.electric field.
rr
This communicat.ion will discuss microstrip arrays of three general
types: wraparound microstrip antennas that wrap around missiles,
rockets, and satellites to provide omnidirect.iona1 coverage; flat
thin microstrip antennas that. provide a high gain fan beam or a I
pencil beam: a phased array that consists of flat, (or curved) thin
microstrip antennas with pin diodes added to the microst.rip sub-
strate to provide an elertronic beam steering capabilit,y.
11. MICROSTRIP WRAPAROOND ANTENSAS
The wraparound antennas which provide omnidirectional coverage
are similar in performance (coverage and bandwidth) t.0 the strip-
line (two layer PC board) antennas discussed by Waterman and
Henry [l], Campbell [a], and Johnson [a]. In general, stripline
and mirrostrip antennas will produce bandwidths (VSWR < 2: 1)
of 30 3IHz to 100 MHz in the L band and S band regions with a
1- to 2 d B variat.ion in the roll plane. The microst.rip maparound
antenna consists of t,wo parts: 1) mirrostrip feed netxorkand
2) microstrip radiator. -3
111. MICROSTRIP FEED XEWORR
The microstrip feed network(Fig. 1) is a parallel (corporate)
feed network where t.wo-rray power splits and equal line lengths
result, in equal power and equal phase t.o all of the feed points.
The number of power divisions can be 2, 4, 8, 16, etr. The number
of feeds, power divisions, required is dictated b?- the microstrip 4
radiator. The number of feed points A\-F must exreed the number
of wavelengths in the dielertric in the L dirertion: S F > LD;
LD is the number of wavelengths in the dielertric = L ( E , ) ~ ’ ~ / ~ ~ ;
E, is the relative dielectric constant of the board material being
used: E, = 2.45 is typical; if only the TEM mode is to be excited.
This mode will in turn excite only Ti\Iox modes in free space (no
roll pattern variation). If XF < L D , then higher order modes will be
escited on the microstrip radiator.These modes will excite T ~ I , v . ~ 4
modes in free space 14,p. 2761. The excitation of higher order modes
on the microatrip radiator will result in breakup of the roll (4) plane
patterns. A s an example, t.he number of feeds required for an S hand
2‘290 MHz (ALo = 12.T rml nraparound for a 25.4cm missile would
be
L = TO = ’79.i.56cm
il
L ! E ~ ) ~ i9.i56(2.45)1’2
‘~
= - - 79.65‘7.1.6 = 10.05
X0 12.7 12.7
-\-F > 10.05 and :-\F can be 2, 4,8, 16, 32, 64, etc.

Thus S F must be 16.

Manuscript received April 4 1973’ revised September 5 1973.
Two types of feed n e h o r k are used to acomplish a 2, 4, 8, 16,
The aut.hor is wit.h the Ball ’Brothks Research Corporathn. Boulder. et.c., power split. Most
often tapered lines, Fig. Zfa),
are used to *
Co!o. 80302. transfer a 50-i2 impedance to 100 i2, so that it can be combined in
1 Pat,ent # 3 713 162 “Single slot. cavits antennaassembly.”dated
Jan. 23,-1973. parallel wit.h another 100-0 line. The same procedure is shown in
 75
T O P ',IEW

YL-I
MICROSTRIP RADIATOR w
7
I:PuT L = Z
i

I A I
I
MR
INW
a :THICKNESS OF THE
PRINTED BOARD
Y I C R O S T R I RP A D I A T O (RC O P ' E R )
(a) SIDE VlEY 7
SLOT 3 7 / /-SLCT A

1 7
MICROSTRIP RADl&TOR

T-i- -L,
--
MR mn

+
~ w n mn rn
Mil
IOOl! ~ ..
PLAK

THE P D K I T i A R C E S (OR I R P E D A h C E : TRkWSFORKATlONS

loon

7
50fl 70fl 70R 50fl
T R L R S F O R R ABTEI OF O
K RL PFTER T R A H S F O R M A T l O k

50n INPUT
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) Tapered line parallel
feednetwork. (b) Quarter-wave
transformer parallel feed network.

Fig. 2 (b) for a quarter-wave transformer technique. The impedance

of the quarter-wave transformer is given by
Ztranscomer ( Z i , X ZOUt)112
= (100.50)1'2 zz 70Q. Fig. 3. Microstrip radiator.

The number of feed points possible for a very long radiator is

limited only by the allowable system losses that, can be allocated point the t,wo impedances combine in parallel to give
to the feed network. However, it is desirable to use the minimum
X F satisfying t.he condition 'Vp > LD.If 32 feeds were used instead -1= - 1+ - =1 - +1- 1
of 16 the preceding example would result in input impedances Tin ra rb 60 60
exceeding 300 52 which would be impossible tomatch efficiently r ; , = 30 Q.
with microstrip feed lines.
In the example shown in Fig. 3 ( a ) this impedance is split between
16. MICROSTRIP RADIATOR four feed points with each feed theoretically seeing 120 a. I n practice,
this is the measured impedance. Thistheory is veryaccurate in
Two types of microstrip radiators are generally used: the long
predicting the input. impedances for many designs each with dif-
microstrip radiatorandthe pat.ch radiator.The long microstrip
ferent frequencies, thicknesses, feed point, separations, and number
radiator shown in Figs. 2 (a) and (b) is shown in top and side view
of feed points. The previous discussion did not treat the implica-
in Figs. 3 ( a ) and ( b ) , respectivel1. Gap d is an infinitesimal slot
tions of the react.ive component of the admit.tance BA because it
(in 0.79 mm microstrip a / A = 1/150 a t S band). The admittance
does not affect t.he conductancecomponent of admittance GA.
of aslot radiator is given in Harrington [4, p. 1831 for small
The effect of the reactance B-4 is to produce a resonance slightly
ka ( a / h < 0.1) which is always the case in mlcrostrip antenna
short, of a half-wavelength. For example, we can consider the ad-
practice
mitt,ance of Slot -4 to be
F A = G.4 + BA.
A t adistance of 0 . S on the parallel-platetransmission line, the
B, =
3.135 - 2 log ka. admittance has been transformed to Y - 4 = G,i BA and these +
admittances combine directly in parallel nit,h Y e to produce Yi, =
x9
2GA +
2B which is not resonance. At a dist.ance just short (usually
In mostmicrostrip applicat.ions ka./24 << 1 andthe conductance 0.49X to 0.48h) of a half-wavelength in the parallel-plate trans-
simplifies to G,, = T / X ~ = l/h(120) mho/m or X, = 120h 9.m. mission line transformer the transformed admittance of Slot A is
The conductance is expressed in per unit length so t,hat theresistance
of the Slot -4 in Figs. 3(a) and (b) is obtained by dividing K, by FA = G,, - B.4
the length and at this lengt,h slightly short of a half-wavelength [h0/2(er)"2]
R, 120h resonance is established with no susceptance
..
r, = - = - = 600
L 2x Yin = G A + Gn = 2G..4
The dielectric under the microstrip radiator can be treated Zi, = RAP3
as a transmission line approximately X/2 long. The problem with
the microstrip t.ransnlission line is its very low impedance, typically and for the example
1 to 10 0. This section of parallel-plate transmission line does Z i , = Ri, = 30 Q (total resistance)
transform t.he Slot 4 impedance from 60 Q through small inledances
near the center and back to 60 52 a t Slot B [see Fig. 3(c)]. At this R,, = 120 52 (per feed).
 76

$1
IEEE TFL4NSACTIONS ON ANTENNASAND PROP.4GATION, JANUARY 1974

99.999

340
99.9975 A /DELTA
320
0
99.99
280

= 240
x
-Y mo
E
160
5
d I
s 120
2.57 5 IO 15 20 40 EO
WR~P.AROUNOMICROSTRIPANTENNA:MISSILEDIAMETER IN INCHES
EO
Fig. 5. Pattern coverage versus diameter for microstrip wraparound
antennas on smmtn cylinders.
40 +-

30 I I I

THICKNESS-IVSWR<2:I)
.. . ..
Fig. 4. S band bandwidth WSWR 2-1) as function of antenna thickness. LOSSES

EXPERIMENiN M W E L 3-15" ARRAY

(GAIN PAiTERN FIGURE 61
Thebandwidth of amicrostrip antenna is dominated bythe
microstrip parallel-plate transmission line between Slot A and B.
Since the transmission line usually has an impedance close to 1 fi
and the two slots have impedances close to 100 fi, the transforma-
tion exists usually for 1-percent bandwidth for VSRR < 2: 1.
The bandwidth can be easily calculated by adding
Yi,= FA + Ye w-H-0

(where theamountthat YA istransformeddepends upon fre- 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0

quency.), and then evaluating the two frequency points a t which
the reactances cause t.he VSWR t o equal 2: 1. Severalmeasured
bandwid& of microstrip phased arraysare shown inFig.
in conjunction with the theoretical bandwidth as calculated earlier.
The major limitation of the microstrip antennais the bandwidth.
Tosubstantially increase thebandwidth of microstrip antennas
requires an increase of the t,hickness of the parallel platetrans-
former which increases the characterist.ic impedance of the trans-
former. This increase in thickness is undesirable if the antenna is
to remain low profile and conformal. I n most applicat.ions the
W:H:D":LED;GiH OFONE SIDE OF A SOUARE ARRAY IN INCHES
fig. 6. Gain versus size for flat. microstrip m a s s (frequency is X band
4 or 1 0 GRz and = 1.18").
The percent coverage is only a function of diameter and is in-
dependent of antenna thickness. The theoretical and experimental
pattern coverages for microstrip antennas onasmooth cylinder
are given in Fig. 5 for gain greater than -8 dB.
,-l

advantages of a low profile antenna outweighs the disadvantage IV. FLAT-PL-~TE MICROSTRIP
AKTEKNAS
of its narrow bandwidth because present applications
require
less t.han 1 percent. Three othermethods of increasing t.he band- Unwrapping omniwraparound ant.ennas and mounting them
width are currently being investigated: 1) use of a high (c) dielectirc flat on a metal surface or in free space produces a high
constant to decrease the cavity length; 2) increasing the inductance gain fan beamant.enna pattern. By arraying several antennas
of the microstrip radiator by cutt.ing holes or slots into it. Experi- side by side, a pencil beam is produced. Theoretically, the micro-
ments show increased bandwidth but a t the cost, of efficiency, in strip radiators produce a uniform illumination of the aperture and
fact the same increase could have been attained by using a more the gain of a uniformly illuminated aperture is given by Silver -?

lossy substrate; 3) broadbanding by addition of reactive rom- C6l as

ponents as discussed in Jasik [ 5 ] to reduce VSWR across a limited
bandwidth.This technique is very limited usually t o 50 percent
of Afdfo.
lT.h h X O S T R I P AKTENNA
PATTERK COVEX4GE FOR In practice, the microstrip feed line attenuationsubt.racts from
OMNIAPPLICATIONS t.his gain
i
Thepattern coverage for the omniantenna shown in Fig. 1
depends on the diameter of the missile. The limiting factor in omni-
directional pattern coverage is a singular hole at the tip and tail
of the missile which gets namnuer as the diameter of the missile aline = aL.
increases. For instance,a 15-in diameter antenna produces a null
along the missile axis of radius 1' at the -&dB gain level. The Theattenuation is dependentonfrequency and line 1engt.h. At
fraction area with gain below -8 dB is given by X band a microstrip line on 0.79-mm board has anattenuation
LY = 0.04'7 dB/cm. The length of t.he microstrip feed line for a

..=(lo lo 3600

= 0.0002.
10 3600 IgOO .?IO

s i n t ? & d . $ + i o ~,90sined8&)// o o 1
lsoo

o0 sinodd.$
given array is half of the height plus half of the width of t.he array

L = -TV+ - H
2 2
8

Conversely, the fraction of thearea with gain above -8 dB is

0.9998, or 99.98 percent coverage wit.h gain greater than -8 dB.
The percent coverage increases without limit for larger diameters
until a nearly perfect coverage is attained for a single linear polariza-
t.herefore
- = ( 4 )W +H )
a t X band for a 12.5-cm X 7.62-cm ant.enna a l i n e = 0.48 dB. Gain
tion. as a function of size for a square microstrip array is shown in Fig. 6.
 Fig. 7. High gain flat microstrip antenna.

Fig. 10. Microstrip radiator.

Fig. 11. Radiation pattern of microstrip patch. Patterns were measured

i
MICROSTRIP 6 t h spinning dipole to demonstrate low axial ratios to wide angle.
RADIATOR

MICROSTRIP This works quite well except when the L of the individual radiator
CONTROL- PHASE SHIFTER5 is not reduced below 0.25 Xo. For L < 0.25 X 0 the radiation resist,ance
INPUT
of the microstrip radiator rapidly disappears, i.e., the slots d
MICROSTRIP and B are not long enough to mat.ch free-space efficiently because
POWER SPLITTER their size has been reduced below cutoff for the modes that. mustbe
I
matched t.0 free space asdescribed by Harrington [4, p. 2781.
R.F. INPUT Each of thesemicrostrip radiatorsare rectangularmicrostrip
elements and each one produces a hemispherical coverage pattern,
Fig. 9. Elect,ricallyscannedmicrostrip phased array (low cost and
Fig. 11. A conceptual model of the phased array shown in Fig. 9
lorr profile).
was built and tested to demonstratea complete microst,rip electrically
scanned phased array. The patterns scanned to the angles predicted
with a gain within 1 dB of the expected gain, Fig. 12. The phase
An experimental model 7.62 cm X 12.7 cm X 0.79 mm (Fig. shifters used were microstrip 90" hybrid phase shifters with diodes
7) was built and tested and confirms a gain (Fig. 8) in agreement in the two output. legs. Driving t.wo diodes in the two output. legs
with the theoretical predictions (Fig. 6 ) . The measured gain of of the hybrid changes the phase of the reflected power in the re-
21 dB is also plot.ted on the predicted gain curve (Fig. 6 ) . The flected port of the hybrid. The phaseshiftat.tained is twice t,he
microstrip antenna offers high gain for a lox cost. I t also offers a low distance the short reference is moved in the two out,put legs. Three
profile antenna that. can operate flush mounted t,o a metal surface. phaseshifters were used in series for each element. to produce
O", 45", go", 135", 180", 22j0, 270°, or 315" phasing of each element.
VII. MICROSTRIP PHASED
ARRAYS The phase shifters along with all of their dc feed lines, dc blocks,
By adding "pin diodes" for digital phase shift.ing, Fig. 9, to t.he R F blocks, the RF corporate feed network, the matchingnet-
work, and the microstripradiators were all photo etched on one
microstrip substratean integrated electrically scanned antenna
side of one microstrip board.
is attained. The process of phasing t.he radiators to scan the beam
requires breaking up the microst,rip radiators
into
individual
VIII. coscLusloss
elements. The individualmicrostrip elements (a sample is shown
in Fig. 10) work just like the long microst.rip radiator described Microstrip antennas constitute a new class of onmidirectional
in the previous section. By using L the length of t.he individual antenna for missiles and satellites. These antennas are capable of
microst.rip radiators we can calculate the resonantlength, input producing a predictable and nearly perfect onmidirectional coverage.
impedance, and bandwidth of the microstrip radiator just as was A new low- cost low profile flat microstrip array is shown to have
done in the previous section. 90-percent aperture efficiency. I n addition, t.he &at. microstrip
78
Fig. 12. Elect.ronically scanned 4 element array. - measured pattern.
- predicted pattern.
arrays can be electronically scannedwith the addition of phase
shifters.
These antennas are inexpensive tofabricate because of t.he
photoetch process used intheirmanufacture, and inexpensive
to install because they are conformal. Electronically scanned micro-
strip arrays make possible an ultra low profile (conformal), low cost
design for phased arrays. I t may be possible to entirely cover the
outer surface of a missile or aircraft wit.h these antennas without
large cost or weight penalties.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Theauthor wishes tothank G . Sanfordfor his supportand
advice in the preparationof this paper, and M. Perdue for her assist-
ance in edit,ing and typing.
REFERENCES
111 A Waterman and D. Henry,“Stripline strapon antennaarray,”
presented at the 21st USAF Antenna Symp.
121 T. G. Campbell, “An extremely t” .omnidirectional microwave
antenna array for spacecraft appllcatlons,” NASA Tecn. Xote
D-5539. Nov. 19G9
131 H. P. Johnson “ i n extremelythin flush mounted slott,ed linear
array,” presen&d a t the 16th U S A F Antenna Symp.
141 R. F Harrlneon Tme Harmonic EZeUromagnetic FieIds. iiex
York: M;IcGraG-Hii12p. 276.
151 Jasik, Antenna Engzneerrng Handbook. p. 3125..
161 S. Silver, BfzcrowaoeAntenna Theory andDestgn (JI.1.T. Rad. Lab.
S e r i e s . vol. 12). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1949, p. 158.
Circularly Symmetric RF Commutator for Cylindrical
Phased Arrays
BRUCE F. BOGNER
Absfract-A new feed concept is described which greatly simpli-
fies the problem of commutating the RF distribution system of a
cylindrical phased array. The feed consists of a circular parallel-
plate radial transmission line with a central set of probes and a
ring of peripheral probes. The array of probes in the center can be
phased to produce an,amplitude distribution in the parallel-plate
&lanuscript received April 16. 1973; revised Sept,em,ber 1 7 . 1973.
The author is ~ i t h
Mlsslle and Surface Radar Dlrqslon, RCX Gov-
ernment and Commercial Systems. Noorestom, N.J. 08057.
IEEE TRANS.4CTIONS ON ANTENNAS AKD PROPAGATION, JbNUARY 1974
line in any given direction. Proper setting of only two phase shifters
connected to the central probes can cause any sector of the pe-
ripheral probes to be excited with the proper amplitude distribution
necessary to produce a directive pattern with low sidelobes a s well
as a monopulse diEerence pattern when the peripheral probes are
connected, through collimating phase shifters, to theactive radiating
elements of a cylindrical array. The cylindrical array can be scanned
through 360” in h e increments by continuedindexing of the
amplitudedistribution generated by thecentral probes. Experi-
mental L band hardware, built to prove the feed technique, is de-
scribed.Nine central probes in a 0.25-inch thick 21-in diameter
model produced a cardioid distribution and an orthogonal figure-
eight distribution which could be commutated together by adjust-
ment of two phase shifters. Measured insertion loss between the
central probes and 48 peripheral probes showed only 0.1-dB loss
over a 6-percent band. Coupling measurements between the three
available central terminals indicated isolation between the various
ports of 23-35 dB. The minimum insertion loss and the correspond-
ing transmission phase between the central feed and the peripheral
probes was shown to be independent of the setting of the two
control phase shifters which were set to haveconjugate phase shift.
INTRODUCTION
The circnlarly symmetric R F commutator consists of a circular
parallel-plateradialtransmission line and acentral R F control
circuit as shornin Fig. 1. The radial line contains a central array of
probes and a peripheral set of equally spaced pickup probes, illus-
trated in Fig. 2 . The cent.ra1 probes can be phased to produce an
amplit.ude distribution in t.he parallel-plate line in a given direction
in the same manner as an array antennacan be phased to produce a
beam in space.Proper set.ting of phaseshifters connect,ed to the
central probes can cause the peripheral probes t o be excited with the
proper amplit.ude necessary to produce a directive pattern with low
sidelobes when the peripheral probes are connected?through collimat-
ing phase shift.ers and sector selection sn-itch-, to t.he active radiat-
ing elements of a cylindrical phased array. Also thisamplitude
didribution can be commutatedaround the cylindrical array by
varying the phase of the phase shifters in the central control circuit.
The control circuit also produces an orthogonal distribution in the
parallel-plate line which can be used to form a monopulse difference
pattern.
PRINCIPLE
OF OPERATION
The circularly symmetric RF commutator involv- the use of a
radial transmission line with ? Y / m peripheral probes connect,ed t o
“m” m-ay switches which connect to the S radiat,ing elements of a
cylindrical array. Theentire periphery of the radial t.ransmision line
contributes at. all t.imes to theexcit.ation of the S j r n radiators which
comprise the active array sert,or.
The central control circuit requires (theoretically) only five probes
to produce an angular variation of field in t,he radial line following
the function
l+Kcos.$
E =
1 + K
(note: this is referred to as a cardioid in the remainder of the text)
where 6 is the angular coordinate around the power divider referred
to the peak of the probe array pattern and K is a constant which
determines t.he taper. The probe array and the associated central
ront,rol circuit are designed so t.hat this pattern can be rotated elec-
tronically within the power divider for other cases of array beam
directions. Thus any two adjacent ports may become the feeds for
end antenna elements in the excited sector, and two diametrically
opposite port,s become the feeds for the centermost elements. This is
accomplished by programmed control of t.he t.wo p h m shift.ers in
the central control circuit. This feed technique, in conjunction with
sector selection switching, provides S position coarse steering in a
uniquelJ- simple way.
The 11F commutator is acombination of a radial waveguide
antenna [l]. [a] (cent.ral ring of probes) and a radial t.ransmission line
terminated on it,x periphery by an array of pickup probes 131, [4]