Antenna Arrays : Introduction

• Array is an assembly of antenna elements arranged in

an orderly fashion.
• The elements are usually identical.
Why array?
• When high gain and/or narrow beam are required:
– Single element -> Wide beam (low directivity)
– Increasing size -> difficult to build and expensive
– Useful especially when the element gain is low.
 ANTENNA ARRAYS
• Antenna array is a group of antennas or antenna
elements arranged to provide the desired characteristics.
• Generally any combination of elements can form an
array.
• However, equal elements in a regular geometry are
usually used.
• Total Field of the Array – Vector Addition of the fields
of Individual Elements
• Directive Patterns – Constructive Interference in desired
directions – Destructive Interference in Undesired
Directions
 Need for Array Antennas

• Antennas with directive characteristics –

needed for long distance communications
• Enlarging the size of antenna results in
directive patterns
• However results in large side lobes
• High gain – More directive patterns
• Beam Forming – Tracking and Scanning
Factors controlling the radiation pattern
of the Array Antennas
• Geometry of the array – Linear, Circular,
Rectangular, planar etc.
• The Spacing between the elements.
• The Excitation Amplitude of the Individual
Elements.
• The Excitation Phase of the Individual
Elements.
• The Relative Pattern of Individual Elements.
Advantages
• The signal strength increases
• High directivity is obtained
• Minor lobes are reduced much
• High Signal-to-noise ratio is achieved
• High gain is obtained
• Power wastage is reduced
• Better performance is obtained
Disadvantages
• Resistive losses are increased
• Mounting and maintenance is difficult
• Huge external space is required
 Characteristics of an Array
• An important characteristic of an array is the change
of its radiation pattern in response to different
excitations of its antenna elements.
• Unlike a single antenna whose radiation pattern is
fixed, an antenna array’s radiation pattern, called the
array pattern, can be changed upon exciting its
elements with different currents.
• This gives us a freedom to choose (or design) a
certain desired array pattern from an array, without
changing its physical dimensions.
• Furthermore, by manipulating the received signals
from the individual antenna elements in different
ways, we can achieve many signal processing
functions such as
spatial filtering,
interference suppression,
gain enhancement,
target tracking, etc.
Broadside Antenna Array
• A type of arrangement of multiple identical elements that are
placed parallelly along the line normal to the antenna axes
forms a broadside antenna array.
• It is known to be a practical antenna array configuration which
is most widely used.
End-Fire Antenna Array
• An end-fire array has a similar arrangement of elements as the
broadside arrangement but the crucial difference between the
two configurations lies on the way of excitation.
• In end-fire array, the elements are fed out of phase generally
180°, while in case of broadside each element is fed with the
current of the same phase.
Collinear Antenna Array
• It is an arrangement that allows the placement of various
antenna elements in a single line from an end to another.
• This means that here the various elements are stacked one
behind the other in a single line.
Parasitic  Array
• Parasitic arrays are the multi-element arrays that provide high
directive gain without even feeding each element of the array.
• This antenna array helps to deal with the problem of feedline
by not providing direct excitation to each and every element of
the array.
• Its basis of operation is feeding some elements of the antenna
array parasitically.
 TWO ELEMENT ARRAY
• Array of two infinitesimal dipoles positioned along
Z-axis. No coupling between elements
Since the dipole current is z-directed, the vector potential also
has only a z-component which is given by
• The electric field of the two-element array is given
by,

Element Pattern Array Factor

• For , the array factor reduces to

 Broad Side Array (Excitation with Zero Phase Shift)
• Array Factor

• Direction of Maxima

• No.of.Maxima and Spacing

• Direction of Null

• No.of.Nulls and Spacing

End Fire Array (Excitation with Non-Zero Phase Shift)
• Array Factor

• Direction of Maxima

• No.of.Maxima and Spacing

• Direction of Null

• No.of.Nulls and Spacing

• Thus it is clear that in order to achieve a desired

antenna array pattern, it is important to choose both
the element pattern as well as the array factor
appropriately.
 N-Element Linear Array -
Uniform Array
• A uniform array consists of equispaced
elements, which are fed with current of equal
magnitude and can have progressive phase-shift
along the array.
• The individual radiating elements are point
sources with the first element of the array at the
origin.
• Distance between two consecutive elements is
‘d’.
Uniform array of Point Sources

n
• The array factor of N-element Linear array is given
by,

• From Fig,

• Then Array Factor is given by,

• Here , dividing the array factor by

Direction of Maxima
• The array factor has a principal maximum if both the
numerator and the denominator simultaneously go to zero,
which occurs under the following condition.

• The principal maxima of the array factor occur for

• The array factor has periodic maxima at intervals of 2π. The

lobe containing the principal maximum corresponding to m =
0 is the main lobe and all other lobes containing principal
maxima are called the grating lobes.
•  
Direction of Null
Half Power Beamwidth
Maxima of the first Minor lobe
• Main Lobe: The lobe containing the principal
maximum corresponding to m=0.
• Grating Lobes: All other lobes containing principal
maximum.
• There are N-1 zeros between two adjacent principal
lobes and occurs at l(2π / N), l=1,2,3,…,N-1.
• Side Lobes: The array factor has a minor peak
between any two zeros.
• The peak of the first side lobe adjacent to the main
lobe occurs midway between the two zeros.
• The first side lobe level is 13.46dB below the main
lobe level, all other side lobes are lower than this.
Array Factor of a 7-element Uniform Array
Array Factor of a 7-element Uniform Array
Array Factor of a 7-element Uniform Array
Broad Side Array
Broad Side Array
Broad Side Array : Directivity
End Fire Array
End Fire Array
End Fire Array
End Fire Array : Directivity
 Phased (Scanning) Array
• To direct the major radiation from an array, by
controlling the phase excitation between the
elements, in directions normal (broadside) and along
the axis (end fire) of the array.
• It is then logical to assume that the maximum
radiation can be oriented in any direction to form a
scanning array.
• Assume that the maximum radiation of the array is
required to be oriented at an angle θ0. (0◦ ≤ θ0 ≤
180◦).
• To accomplish this, the phase excitation β between
the elements must be adjusted so that

• Thus by controlling the progressive phase difference

between the elements, the maximum radiation can be
squinted in any desired direction to form a scanning
array.
• This is the basic principle of electronic scanning
phased array operation.
• Since in phased array technology the scanning must
be continuous, the system should be capable of
continuously varying the progressive phase between
the elements.
• In practice, this is accomplished electronically by the
use of
– Ferrite phase shifters.
magnetic field within the ferrite
– Diode phase shifters.
hybrid-coupled varactors.
Incremental Switched-line Pin-diode Phase
Shifter

Incremental switched-line phase shifter

using PIN diodes
• The differential phase shift, provided by switching on
and off the two paths, is given by

• By properly choosing l1 and l2, and the operating

frequency, the differential phase shift (in degrees)
provided by each incremental line phase shifter can
be made small, and it determines the resolution of the
phase shifter.
• Incremental phase shifters will cover the entire range
(0 − 180◦) of phase.
• Usually designed for binary phase shifts of Δφ = 180◦
, 90◦ , 45◦ , 22.5◦,etc.,
The radiation pattern of a phased array in polar
coordinate system.
Three- and two-dimensional array factor patterns of
a 10-element uniform amplitude scanning array
Half Power Beamwidth
Advantages:
• High antenna gain with large side-lobe attenuation
• Very fast change of beam direction (in range of
microseconds)
• High beam agility
• Multi-function operation by simultaneous generation
of multiple beams
• Failure of some components does not result in a
complete system failure.
Disadvantages:
• Limited scanning range (up to max. 120° in
azimuth and elevation)
• Deformation of the antenna pattern during
beam steering
• Low frequency agility
• Very complex structure (computer, phase
shifter, data bus to each radiator)
• High costs (still)
N-ELEMENT LINEAR ARRAY: UNIFORM
SPACING, NONUNIFORM AMPLITUDE
• Broadside arrays with uniform spacing but
nonuniform amplitude distribution will be
considered.
• A uniform amplitude array yields the smallest half-
power beamwidth.
• Binomial arrays with element spacing equal or less
than λ/2 have no side lobes.
• A criterion that can be used to judge the relative
beamwidth and side lobe level of one design to
another is the amplitude distribution (tapering) along
the source.
Array Factor:
Binomial Array :
• The array factor for the binomial array is represented
by the previous equations where the an’s are the
excitation coefficients which will now be derived.
Excitation Co-efficients
Using Binomial Series expansion,
The coefficients for other arrays can be determined in a
similar manner.
Design Procedure
• The design using a λ/2 spacing leads to a pattern with no
minor lobes.
• Thus the approximate closed-form expressions for the half-
power beamwidth and maximum directivity for the d = λ/2
spacing only have been derived in terms of the numbers of
elements or the length of the array, are given by
• There are no minor lobes for the arrays with spacings of λ/4
and λ/2 between the elements.
• Binomial arrays have very low level minor lobes, they
exhibit larger beamwidths.
• The wide variations between the amplitudes of the different
elements of an array, especially for an array with a large
number of elements.
• The relative amplitude coefficient of the end elements of a
10-element array is 1 while that of the center element is 126.
• Practically, it would be difficult to obtain and maintain such
large amplitude variations among the elements.
• They would also lead to very inefficient antenna systems.
 Adaptive Array (Smart)
• Antennas
Introduced increasingly with the development of
other technologies including the software defined
radio, cognitive radio, MIMO and many others.
• Include signal processing capability that can perform
tasks such as analysis of the direction of arrival of a
signal.
• Use beam-forming techniques to achieve better
reception, or transmission.
• Use some form of adaptive antenna array scheme to
enable the antenna to perform its beam formation and
signal direction detection.
 Smart Antenna Functions
• Direction of arrival estimation:
The information received by the antenna array is passed
to the signal processor within the antenna and this
provides the required analysis.
• Beam steering:  
With the direction of arrival of the required and any
interfering signals analyzed, the control circuitry within
the antenna is able to optimise the directional beam
pattern of the adaptive antenna array to provide the
required performance.
 Smart Antenna Analogy

Human Analogy Electrical Equivalent

Smart Antenna Systems
 Antenna Analysis
• In the analysis problem an antenna model is chosen, and
it is analyzed for its radiation characteristics (pattern,
directivity, impedance, beamwidth, efficiency,
polarization, and bandwidth).
• This is usually accomplished by initially specifying the
current distribution of the antenna, and then analyzing it
using standard procedures.
• If the antenna current is not known, it can usually be
determined from integral equation formulations.
Numerical techniques, such as the Moment Method of
can be used to numerically solve the integral equations.
 Antenna Synthesis
• It is often necessary to design an antenna system that will
yield desired radiation characteristics.
• To design an antenna whose far-field pattern possesses nulls in
certain directions.
• Other common requests are for the pattern to exhibit a desired
distribution, narrow beamwidth and low sidelobes, decaying
minor lobes, and so forth.
• The task, is to find not only the antenna configuration but also
its geometrical dimensions and excitation distribution.
• The designed system should yield, either exactly or
approximately, an acceptable radiation pattern, and it should
satisfy other system constraints.
 Antenna Pattern Synthesis Methods
• Antenna pattern synthesis usually requires that first an
approximate analytical model is chosen to represent, either
exactly or approximately, the desired pattern.
• The second step is to match the analytical model to a physical
antenna model.
• The synthesis methods will be utilized to design line-sources
and linear arrays whose space factors and array factors will
yield desired far-field radiation patterns.
• The total pattern is formed by multiplying the space factor (or
array factor) by the element factor (or element pattern).
• For very narrow beam patterns, the total pattern is nearly the
same as the space factor or array factor.
 Antenna Synthesis
Antenna pattern synthesis can be classified into three
categories
Schelkunoff Method
 Synthesis of arrays whose antenna patterns possess
nulls in desired directions.
 To complete the design, this method requires
information on the number of nulls and their
locations.
 The number of elements and their excitation
coefficients are then derived.
Fourier transform method
 This method can be used to determine, given a
complete description of the desired pattern, the
excitation distribution of a continuous or a discrete
source antenna system.
 The derived excitation will yield, either exactly or
approximately, the desired antenna pattern.
 The pattern synthesis using this method is referred to
as beam shaping.
Woodward-Lawson method
 A very popular antenna pattern synthesis method used for
beam shaping was introduced by Woodward and Lawson.
 The synthesis is accomplished by sampling the desired pattern
at various discrete locations.
 Associated with each pattern sample is a harmonic current of
uniform amplitude distribution and uniform progressive phase,
whose corresponding field is referred to as a composing
function.
 The corresponding synthesized pattern is represented by a
finite summation of composing functions with each term
representing the field of a current harmonic with uniform
amplitude distribution and uniform progressive phase.
Dolph-Tschebyscheff method
 Techniques that produce patterns with narrow beams
and low sidelobes.
 This method is basically a compromise between
uniform and binomial array.
 It provides a means of determination of suitable
polynomials which give the excitation co-efficients to
obtain satisfactory patterns.
 This method yields a radiation pattern containing one
main beam and side lobes with the same level.
 This is done by finding the spacing of nulls.