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Simplified Model of a Fabry-Perot Antenna

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 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

Simplified Model of a Fabry-Perot Antenna

G. Di Massa, H. O. Moreno, S. Costanzo
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informatica e Sistemistica
Universitá della Calabria
87036 Rende (Cs) Italy
Email: dimassa@deis.unical.it

Abstract—A new approach is proposed for the study of a pla-

nar Fabry-Perot antenna. A reliable description of the coupling
between the cavity and the feeding waveguide is developed by
taking into account for all the relevant eigenfunctions both in
the waveguide and into the cavity. The cavity field is used to
compute equivalent currents on radiating apertures, obtaining
from them the radiated far field. The approach can be adopted
for the analysis as well as for the synthesis of a large variety of
cavity antennas.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Millimeter waves frequency bands are very attractive re-
sources for telecommunications as they can be used in many
applications which include the realization of high data rate
links in pico cellular networks, local multipoint data services,
automotive radars, inter-satellite communications, and so on.
The design of antennas at such high frequencies cannot be Fig. 1. Rectangular Open Resonator
afforded with conventional designs. Many original solutions,
such as printed antennas on membrane structures [1], reflectar-
ray [2] and many kinds of lens antennas have been proposed. The solution of (1), assuming an ejωt time dependance, can
Fabry-Perot [3] antennas [4] give a very interesting solution, as be written as:
they can provide a high agility in the design-synthesis. In this
paper, a Fabry-Perot antenna, based on an open resonator with ue = W (x, y, z)e−jkz − (−1)q W (x, y, −z)ejkz (2)
plane mirrors, is presented. In the following, a simple circuit
model based on the modal analysis of the open resonator where q is the longitudinal mode number. Assuming that W
is given. As preliminary result, a test design is considered varies so slowly with z that its second derivative can be
neglected with respect to k ∂ψ
∂z , one obtains the well known
 
and the input impedance predicted by the equivalent circuit
is discussed. Furthermore, results on the simulated radiation parabolic approximation to the wave equation:
patterns are reported.
∂2W ∂2W ∂W
+ − 2jk =0 (3)
II. O PEN R ESONATOR F ORMED BY R ECTANGULAR ∂x2 ∂y 2 ∂z
M IRRORS with the boundary conditions:
We consider an Open Resonator formed by two parallel
metallic rectangular mirrors (Fig. 1): W (x, y, −l) = 0f or|x| > aor|y| > b
W (x, y, −l) = ej(2kl−πq) W (x, y, l)f or|x| < a, |y| < b
−a < x <a Equation (3) admits a solution in the form:
−b < y <b
−l < z <l W = Wa (x, z)Wb (y, z) (4)

For a modal analysis of this structure, we start from the wave where the functions Wa and Wb satisfy the equations:
equation for a rectangular field component:
∂ 2 Wa ∂Wa
2
− 2jk = 0 (5)
∇2 u + k 2 u = 0 (1) ∂x ∂z
∂ 2 Wb ∂Wb
with the boundary condition u = 0 on the mirrors. − 2jk = 0 (6)
∂y 2 ∂z

978-88-907018-1-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 1396

 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

with the boundary conditions: According to the reported results, the expression for the ŷ
polarized modes are:


 Wa (x, −l) = 0, for |x| > a;
Wb (y, −l) = 0, for |y| > b.

(7) emn = ue (x, y, z)ŷ (18)
 Wa (x, −l) = e−j2πpa Wa (x, l), for |x| < a;
hmn = −uh (x, y, z)x̂ (19)
Wb (y, −l) = e−j2πpb Wb (x, l),

for |y| < b.


The eigenfrequency of the resulting mode is then given by: where:

q 
kl = π + p , p = pa + pb (8) uh (ξ, η, ζ) = 2e−jπp fa (ξ) fb (η) cos (πqζ) , (q even)
2
where: uh (ξ, η, ζ) = 2e−jπp fa (ξ) fb (η) sin (πqζ) , (q odd)
III. R ECTANGULAR - CAVITY COUPLING
πm2
pa = 2, m = 1, 2, ... (9) Following what developed in [5], [6], [7], the coupling
4 (Ma + β + jβ) between the field inside the cavity (18,19) and the field into
πn2 a rectangular metallic waveguide, assumed as the cavity feed,
pb = 2 , n = 1, 2, ... (10)
4 (Mb + β + jβ) is matched on the coupling aperture allowing an equivalent
r r circuit representation where only the cavity resonant mode
2ka2 2kb2 is taken into account, while all T En0 modes of the exciting
Ma = , Mb = (11)
l l waveguide are considered. Under the above hypotheses, the
and: equivalent circuit modeling both the cavity behavior and the
cavity-waveguide coupling is derived (Fig. 2).
1


ζR 2
β=− √ = 0.824 (12)
π
In (12) ζR is the Rieman’s Zeta function. In dimensionless
coordinates:
r r
k k z
ξ= x, η = y, ζ = (13)
2l 2l 2l
we have: Fig. 2. Metallic cavity equivalent circuit

W = fa (ξ) fb (η) e2πp(ζ+ 2 )

1
(14) In (Fig. 2), L0 and C are the inductance and the capacity of
where: the equivalent cavity, R’ is the resistance due to the losses
on the metallic sheet, L’ gives the inductance representing
the length increase due to non perfect conducting sheets, β01
πmξ
fa (ξ) = cos , (m = 1, 3...) is the cavity-waveguide coupling factor, Le is the inductance
(Ma + β + jβ) due to higher non propagating modes in the waveguide, and
πmξ Z0 represents the characteristic impedance of the feeding
fa (ξ) = sin , (m = 2, 4...)
(Ma + β + jβ) waveguide.
πnη When the second metallic sheet in (Fig. 2) is substituted
fb (η) = cos , (n = 1, 3...)
(Mb + β + jβ) with a partially reflecting surface [8], an equivalent impedance
πnη
fb (η) = sin , (n = 2, 4...) (15) is inserted in the circuit of (Fig. 3).
(Mb + β + jβ)
and: Le L’ R’
1:b01

Zg
ue (ξ, η, ζ) = 2e−jπp fa (ξ) fb (η) cos (πqζ) , (q odd)
ZS
ue (ξ, η, ζ) = 2e−jπp fa (ξ) fb (η) sin (πqζ) , (q even)
The electromagnetic field inside the cavity can be expressed
in terms of (quasi) transverse electromagnetic modes:
Lo C
X
E = Vmn emn (16) Fig. 3. Radiating cavity equivalent circuit
mn
The reported circuit gives the possibility to optimize the
X
H = Imn hmn (17)
mn transition and to compute the field, inside the cavity, which

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 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

impinges on the radiating sheet, thus allowing the computation

of the radiated field from the equivalent currents on the
radiating apertures.
IV. C OUPLING CAVITY TO FREE SPACE
In the Bethe’s original theory [9], the incident field is
considered in the absence of the aperture.The magnetic dipole
moment is related to incident field as follows:

M = −αm Ht (20)
Fig. 5. Return loss vs. waveguide height
where Ht is the tangential magnetic field at the center of the
aperture and the magnetic polarizability, for small rectangular
aperture, is given by ([10]):
0.132
αm =
W3 (21)
lg 1 + 0.66W
L
where W and L are the dimensions of aperture with L  W .
V. M ODELING AND R ESULTS
Following the reasoning of previous paragraphs, the antenna
depicted under (Fig. 4) is considered. An array od 16x16
elements is assumed, with dimensions h = 10mm, dx =
10mm, dy = 10mm, W = 7mm, L = 2mm. A feeding
waveguide with dimensions a = 15.8, b = 7.8mm, terminat-
ing into an aperture of a = 15.8, b = 1.1mm, is considered. Fig. 6. Radiated Field

VI. C ONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

An open planar cavity antenna has been presented in this
work, by providing an equivalent simplified circuit and ob-
taining both input characteristics and radiation diagrams of
the antenna. The experimental characterization of the antenna
is in progress, and the relative results will be reported at the
conference.
For future developments, the following comments are in
order:
• the development of a synthesis procedure using the posi-
tions and size of the radiating slots will be considered;
• several types of radiating elements and feeding structures
can be considered;

Fig. 4. Antenna

The analysis of coupling between a rectangular cavity

feeding waveguide and the planar open cavity is performed
by taking into account the results of previous paragraph. For
the cavity considered in Fig. 4, the result reported in Fig. 5 is
obtained.
A first preliminary result of the radiation diagram using the
simplified analysis of the proposed antenna is reported in Fig.
6.
In Fig. 7 the HFSS simulated total gain at 14.6 GHz is
reported. Fig. 7. Normalized gain

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 2013 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)

• the problem of frequency bandwidth has to be studied,

thus giving affordable solutions.
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as Substrate Material for Planar Millimeter-Wave Structures: Dielectric
Characterization and Application, International Journal of Infrared and
Millimeter Waves, 2010, 31, n. 1, pp. 66-77.
[2] F. Venneri, S. Costanzo, G. Di Massa, Reconfigurable aperture-coupled
reflectarray element tuned by single varactor diode, Electronics Letters,
48, No. 2, pp. 68-69, 2012.
[3] C. Fabry and A. Perot, Theorie et Applications d’une Nouvélle Method
de Spectroscopie Interférentielle, Ann Chim. Phys. (7), vol 16, pp 115,
1899.
[4] G. Di Massa, L. Boccia,G. Amendola, Gaussian beam antennas based
on open resonator structures, 28th ESA Antenna Workshop on Space
Antenna Systems and Technologies, Olanda, 2005.
[5] O. Bucci, G. Di Massa, Open resonator powered by rectangular waveg-
uide, IEE Proceedings-H, 139, 1992, pp. 323-329.
[6] G. Di Massa, S. Costanzo, O.H. Moreno, Open Resonator System for
Reflectarray Elements Characterization, International Journal of Antennas
and Propagation, vol. 2012, article ID 912809, doi:10.1155/2012/912809,
2012.
[7] G Di Massa, S Costanzo, OH Moreno Accurate circuit model of open
resonator system for dielectric material characterization, Journal of
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[8] G Von Trentini, Partially Reflecting Sheet Arrays, IRE Trans. on Ant.
Propag.,4, pp 666-671, 1956.
[9] H.A Bethe, Theory of Diffraction from Small Holes The Phisical Re-
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[10] N.A. McDonald, Simple Approximations for the Longitudinal Magnetic
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