'Er Organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology Antennas and

Propagation Network

Circular Dual-Polarised Wideband

Arrays for Direction Finding

Michael S Jessup
and Steve Simpson
Roke Manor Research Ltd, UK

©Roke Manor Research Ltd

Printed and published by the IET, Michael Faraday House, Six Hills Way,
Stevenage, Herts SG1 2AY, UK
61
About the Speaker

Michael Jessup graduated from Nottingham University in 1994 with a degree in Mathematical
Physics. He joined the Antenna Group at Matra Marconi Space (now Astriuni) in Stevenage in the
same year to design and analyse shaped reflector antennas for communication satellites. Michael is
currently a Consultant Engineer in the Electromagnetics and RFICs Group at Roke Manor Research in
Romsey (near Southampton) where he has spent the last ten years working on a variety of radar and
antenna related projects.

62
 CIRCULAR DUAL-POLARISED WIDEBAND ARRAYS FOR
DIRECTION FINDING
M.S. Jessup
Roke Manor Research Limited, UK. Email: [email protected]. Fax: +44 (0)1794 833433

Keywords: DF, Vivaldi, Beamforming, ESM. close together then mutual coupling between elements will
become a problem and DF accuracy will suffer.
Abstract
If the elements of the circular array have fixed phase centres
This paper outlines the development of a new circular array of that are half a wavelength apart at the highest frequency then
dual-polarised Fractalled Exponential Flare antennas for use at the bottom of a 10 octave band the phase centres would be
as a wideband Direction-Finding (DF) array. The prototype 0.05 wavelengths apart which is far too close for accurate DF.
array had a number of limitations which lead to the The ideal behaviour would be for the phase centre to move
development of some novel array concepts to overcome these linearly with wavelength from the centre to the edge of the
problems. These concepts include a high frequency inward- circular array as shown in Figure I
facing array and a dual-polarised array that uses half the
number of elements of the original prototype to achieve the
same or better performance.

I Introduction
Electronic Support Measures (ESM) tasks are increasingly
being carried out on lightweight expendable platforms such as
Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). Developing an ESM
system to work on such platforms presents new challenges.

The work described here covers the antenna aspect of the

development of a Radar ESM (RESM) system where the aim
was to produce an array and beamnformer with maximum
possible flexibility but which was small and lightweight
enough to be mounted in a typical UAV. Figure 1: Ideal element phase centre behaviour in a circular
array.
2 Requirements and Initial Concept
One antenna that shows this behaviour is the tapered slot
The requirements for the RESM system called for an array antenna. This antenna is shown in Figure 2.
and beamformer that are wideband (2-20GHz or greater),
dual-polarised and supports beamform-ing for DF with an
ommn-directional mode for listening. Metal Plates

2.1 The Array

The optimal layout for a directional array to support an omni-
directional mode is circular. A series of linear arrays
covering different angular sectors cannot form an
equivalently uniform omni-mode with the same number of
Figure 2: The Linear Tapered Slot Antenna.
elements.
The phase centre for a slot antenna lies along the axis of
A standard way to perform direction finding using a circular
symmetry of the antenna at the point where the width of the
array is through the use of phase-modes. However to support
slot is half a wavelength. With a linear slot the phase centre
phase-modes, the phase centres of adjacent array elements
should move linearly with wavelength as required. However
must be less than half a wavelength apart at all frequencies.
this antenna does not have a uniform beamwidth over its
Furthermore, if the phase-centres of the elements are very
operational frequency band. A variant of this antenna, known
as the Vivaldi antenna [31, has an exponentially flared tapered

63
slot which does produce a uniform beam width with An antipodal design was used because it has good
frequency. An example of this antenna is shown in Figure 3 polarisation purity across its operating frequency range. It is
formed from two bonded PCBs and so is easy to manufacture.
Metal Plates-
One problem with slot antennas is that the gap in the flare at
the phase Centre is half a wavelength, but to form a phased
N.Exponential

~-Curves array the adjacent phase centres need to be a half wavelength

Slotline-- apart. Therefore it was proposed that the crossed elements
were angled at 45 degrees and arranged as shown in Figure 6
which minimises the spacing between the phase centres of
adjacent elements.
Figure 3: The Vivaldi Antenna.

Due to the shape of the flare the Vivaldi antenna is also

shorter and so more compact than a linear tapered slot
antenna with the same bandwidth. The phase centre no
longer moves linearly, but it was felt that this was an
acceptable compromise for the beamnwidth stability and the
compact size. The Fractalled Exponential Flare antenna [2] is
even shorter than a standard Vivaldi as it blends two
exponential flares together and it was this antenna that was
chosen for this array.

The tapered slot antenna produces linear polarisation. For

dual polarisation two antennas need to be combined in such a
way that the antennas are perpendicular to each other. For the Figure 6: Circular array concept.
greatest flexibility the phase centres of both antennas should
be coincident at all frequencies. With appropriate phasing 2.1 The Beamformer
between the two elements this will allow the element pair to
The original beamformer planned for this array was an
receive any polarisation, i.e. any linear, elliptical or circular
analogue device such as an R-KR lens [1] with several input
polarised signal. ports and where each input port produces a separate beam.
This beamformer was then connected to the receiver using a
One method of combining tapered slot elements such that the
switching network. The beamformer would also have the
phase centres of each element are coincident is shown in
capability of being used in an omni-directional mode as well
Figure 4 using Vivaldi antennas.
as being able to form beams.

An alternative to this kind of beamformer would be to feed

the outputs of each of the antennas directly into receivers
where the inputs to the receivers are digitised. Once the
antenna outputs have been digitised then they can be
combined in whatever way is required. Using this approach
with crossed linear elements it is possible to receive both
hands of circular polarisation and any form of elliptical or
linear polarisation simultaneously simply by combining the
Figure 4: Crossed Vivaldi Elements with coincident phase
digitised data in as many ways as required. Similarly, for an
centres [4].
array it is possible to create multiple simultaneous
The crossed design in Figure 4 comprises two antipodal independent beams in exactly the same way with no loss of
Vivaldi flare antennas [5] constructed as shown in Figure 5. gain. The other advantage is that as the outputs from the
array elements are fed directly into the receivers there are no
losses associated with an analogue beamformer and switching
network. For wideband systems, it is often some of the more
narrowband components that are the source of the greatest
losses in the system.

Given the benefits of digital beamforming in terms of

Ftigurne 5:ThnAtiodpoivlddAten flexibility and lower losses it was decided to use this rather
than the analogue approach. However as the weight and
complexity of a digital beamformer is directly proportional to

64
the number of channels it has, then this meant that limiting When prototype elements of this design were measured it was
the elements in the array became an important requirement. found that the phase centres of the elements did not move
along the axis of symmetry of the antenna as predicted but
3 From Concept to Prototype instead remained at the end of the flare across the whole
frequency band. It is believed that this is because the metal
The next step was to devise a method of feeding the array forming the flare was reduced to fit it within the envelope of
elements. This was closely linked with the number of the array. Simulations show that outside edges of the metal
elements used in the array because the requirement to keep surfaces forming the flare support significant surface currents
the phase centres of the elements half a wavelength apart at and contribute significantly to the behaviour of the antenna.
the highest frequency of operation governs the distance of the
phase centre from the centre of the array. This distance then The final prototype array is shown in Figure 9 and comprises
governs the maximum space available for the feed network. nine crossed elements with an overall diameter of 92mm.
Table 1 shows values for this distance for various numbers of
elements and frequencies.

Elements 2 GHz 6 GHz 12 GHz 18 GHz

8 98mmn 33 mm 16mmu 11mmn
12 145min 48 mm 24mmn 16mmn
16 192mmin 64 mm ,32 mm ,21 mm

Table 1: Distance of phase centre from array centre with

varying frequency and number of elements

The solution used to feed the array given the space

restrictions is shown in Figures 7 and 8.
Figure 9: Photograph of final prototype array.

The final prototype that was constructed was limited to

forming phase modes from 3-6GHz, beamforming up to about
1 1GHz and direction finding up to around 18GHz.

Beamforming with a circular array can be achieved with an

element phase centre spacing close to a wavelength. This is
different from a linear array where the phase centres need to
be closer to half a wavelength apart. This requirement for
Figure 7: Crossed Fractalled Exponential Flare array element
linear arrays comes from the need to "scan" the array to
showing feed structure.
produce beams off of boresight. This scan angle can be up to
90-degrees requiring less than a half wavelength spacing.
With a circular array the maximum scan angle for the array is
half the angular spacing between adjacent elements. If a
greater scan angle is required then a different sector of the
array is utilised.

4 Alternative Circular Array Concepts

The limitations of the prototype array led to the proposal of a
number of new array concepts to overcome some of the
challenges set by the requirements.
I
2.1 High Frequency Array
Figure 8: Feed arrangement for circular dual-polarised array.
One of the problems encountered at the high end of the
In Figure 8 it can be seen that one half of the crossed proposed frequency band (2OGHz+) with a circular array is
elements are fed from the bottom of the array while the other that the phase centres for the elements need to be very closely
half are fed from the top with all of the feed lines routed spaced. This leaves very little space for the feed network.
through the middle of the array to the bottom. The proposed solution is shown in Figure 10.

65
 the array is identical to the inward facing array except that the
elements are bi-directional, i.e. they have a beam pattern with
two main lobes facing in opposite directions. The elements
are arranged such that one lobe faces inwards towards the
centre of the array and so the other lobe will face outwards.
An example of this arrangement using planar elliptical dipoles
as elements is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 10: High frequency array of inward facing elements.

N.
In the array shown in Figure 10 the antenna elements face
inwards towards the centre of the array. To limit blockage
and cross-coupling between opposing elements, each element
is rotated by 45-degrees about its axis of symmetry in the Figure 12: Inward/Outward facing array of planar elliptical
same rotation sense around the whole array. This means that dipoles.
opposing elements are at right-angles to each other, and being
linearly polarised. this means that they are effectively invisible When electromagnetic (EM) radiation is incident on the array
to each other. This can be seen more clearly in Figure 11I then the component of the field with the same polarisation as
where the Fractalled Exponential Flare elements have been the elements on the outside edge will be intercepted by these
replaced by dipoles for clarity. elements. The remaining component of the field will then
travel through the array and be intercepted by the elements on
the opposite side of the array because they have the
orthogonal polarisation. This is shown in Figure 13 with
dipole elements for clarity.

Incoming Wave
(Polarisation 1 + 2)

I I I

Figure 11: Side view of array showing element polarisations. I I

As the elements are inward facing in this array then the phase
F I I
centres of the elements, which were found to lie at the front of I F I

each element, are much closer together. This means that the
array can use phase modes and be used for beamforming at
much higher frequencies than the outward facing array.
Front Sub-Array Rear Sub-Array
In addition there is no space limitation for the feed network (Polarisation 1) (Polarisation 2)
meaning that it can be designed without sharp bends which
can radiate and produce losses in the array. Figure 13: Interception of an EM wave by the inward/outward
facing circular array.
Finally, although the array is not dual polarised, because the
elements are rotated through 45 degrees relative to the plane This means that the inward/outward facing array is dual
of the array then the array can detect horizontal, vertical and polarised and yet uses only half the number of elements
both hands of circular polarisation albeit with a 3dB loss. required by the current prototype array for the same aperture
Note also that as the elements are not crossed then the array and beamwidth.
can be much more tightly packed allowing the frequency
range of the array to be increased further, albeit at the expense At first glance it might appear that there is an ambiguity in
of reduced gain. determining which direction the incident wave came from.
However as the array is curved there will be a phase gradient
2.1 Inward/Outward facing Dual-Polarised Array across the front and back halves of the array that eliminate
this ambiguity and even provides elevation information for
This array is a variation of the inward facing array that has a the direction of the incomning wave. This is illustrated more
number of unusual and useful properties. The arrangement of clearly in Figure 14.

66
 In ttis casethephaseof theadjacent elements
is slbhtly retarded
relative
to centralelement All of this is only possible through the use of a digital
Caei dueto lateramrialot radiowave atthese beamformer. As the price, weight and complexity of a digital
CaeI elements sotheradioweve isarrvingfromthe
n
rght beamformer are currently high and directly proportional to the
number of channels then this array, which uses only half the
number of channels of conventional dual-polarised arrays
(such as the prototype array), this is an ideal match for this
technology.

In applications where the array needs to be stealthy it can be

made collapsible through the use of a few rotating joints as
shown in Figure 15.

Antennas

Case 2
Inthiscasethephaseof
theadtacentelements is
slightlyadvanced Figure 15: Collapsed Inward/Outward facing array
reatihveto central
elementdueto earlier
arrivalof radiowave at With the arrangement shown in Figure 15 the array can be
theseelements sothe
radiowaveis amriing collapsed such that it is conformal to the surface of the
fromtheleft
vehicle on which it is mounted and so significantly reducing
its RCS when not in use.

The only limitation of the array is that the phase centres for
the elements do not move with wavelength which limits the
bandwidth of the array. However, like the high frequency
array, more elements can be slotted into the array to reduce
Figure 14: Determining the direction of arrival. element phase-centre spacing as required albeit at the expense
of reduced gain.
If the incident field is split equally between the front half and
back half of the array as would be the case with most 6 Acknowledgements
common polarisations (i.e. horizontal, vertical, right-hand
circular and left-hand circular) then both the front half and This work was funded through the Research Acquisition
back half of the array can be used separately for DF. This Organisation, part of the Ministry of Defence. I would like to
effectively doubles the DF bandwidth of the array compared thank them for giving permission to publish this material.
to the current dual-polarised prototype array. James Fisher at Roke Manor Research Limited produced the
original dual-polarised array concept.
It could be argued that the prototype array (Figure 9) has two
arrays of elements with orthogonal polarisations to perform References
direction-finding, and so should have the same bandwidth.
However, in the case of the prototype array the element phase [1] D. Archer, "Lens Fed Multiple Beam Arrays",
centres for each array are coincident and so no extra Microwave J., pp 37-42, Oct 1975.
information is provided. With the inward/outward facing [2] J. Fisher, "Design and Performance Analysis of a I-
array the two parts of the array are spatially separated and so 40GHz Ultra-Wideband Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna",
providing extra information. This is further enhanced if the GRS 2000, Berlin, Germany.
array is comprised of an odd number of elements and thus [3] Gibson, P.J., 'The Vivaldi Aerial', Proc. 9th European
making the two arrays asymmetric. Microwave Conf., pp. 101 - 105, 1979.
[4] J P Ide, K Moore & P R Foster, "A broadband dual-
As the phase centres of elements of opposite polarisation are polarised Antipodal antenna element with matched
not coincident then at first it would appear impossible to phase centres", Joint RTO 1ST & SET Symposium on
distinguish between the most common polarisations. "Smart Antennas", Chester, UK, 7-9 April 2003, RTO-
However, once the direction of incidence has been MP-119.
determined then it will be possible to establish the [5] Langley, J.D.S., Hall, P.S., Newham, P. 'Balanced
polarisation by knowing the relative locations of the two parts Antipodal Vivaldi antenna for wide bandwidth phased
of the array. arrays'. IEEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol.
143, No. 2, April 1996.

67
68
Circular Dual-Polarised
Wideband Arrays for
Direction Finding
Dr Steve Simpson

0RokeM.ýo Rýtdt Ltd

a Skdee, cmRRon

Introduction roke""

* Requirements

" Design and Build

* Limitations

* Alternative Concepts

2 C RdeeMet RO-rd Lbd

steve.simpson~roke.co.ulc a Sveoe Coffmny

69
Requirements roke4'

* UAV mountable

* Omni-directional Coverage

" Beamnforming capable

* Omni-directional mode

" Wldeband operation 2-2OGHz+

" Dual polarisation

3 0 RokeMaý R~s..± Ltd

[email protected]~uk a Siente Cofl~eny

Array Layouts roke "

Sectored
*Advantages.
* Sub-Arrays can be widely spaced
* Simple beamforming for linear array
* Disadvantages
* Omni-directional mode difficult
* Multiple beamformers required
Circular
"Advantages.
* Simple omni-mode
* Single beamformer
" Disadvantages
* Limited space for feeding the elements
* Complex beamformer

Circular array chosen

4 0 RakeMWWtReserd Ltd
[email protected] . Siemen C-p-yt~

70
Phase Centre Spacing roke4'

Frequency 2F
5 C Rk Mý RýMh Ltd
[email protected] aSiWme Co.,Wany

71
Crossed Antipodal Slot Antennas rke
roke'ý*'

A 8
[email protected] 0 80k. Mao R~d
. slder- conm-y
Lbd

72
 Circular Array Concept roke"'~

9 0 Rck. M-~ R- Lbd

[email protected] a Sl-t~ ConWny

The Beamformer roke'4

Wideband Beamformer Options

" Analogue: e.g. R-KR Lens

" Only one receiver required
" Only Omni-directional mode
and beamforming possible
* Lossy

* Digital:
8-Channel Digital Receiver * Multiple receivers and
complex processing required
* Infinitely flexible
* Minimal Losses

Digital beamformer chosen

10 0 Rake Mýt R.~Idi Ltd

[email protected]

73
 Feeding the Arrayr
keL
Eight
Aj~y Element

Froqoucy f

Radius R Elements 2 GHz 66Glz 12 Giiz 18 GHz

8 98 mm 33 mm 16 mm 11Imm
12 145 mm 48 mm 24 mm 16 mm
16 192 mm 64 mm 32 mm 21 mm

11
[email protected] 0 RokeM,.oR-c
a Slemm Company
Ltd

74
Phase Centre Behaviour roke'"
Currents on back edge of
Vivaldi radiate.

Shift phase centre towards end

of flared section.

Limits bandwidth of array.

IE~i Goal changed to make array as

compact as possible for less
than half wavelength spacing
between element phase
centres over largest possible
bandwidth

13 0 ROMeMor RW Ltd
[email protected]

Final Prototype roke*'4

14 C Rok* Mýt Rerthd Ltd

steve.simpý[email protected] .Sýfl Co.pW,

75
 Alternative Array Concepts roke"'

Looking for solutions to following problems:

" Circular High Frequency arrays

" Element Phase centres need to be close together
" Difficult to feed elements as array radius is so small

* Reducing number of digital receivers required

* Switching networks are bulky, complicated and lossy
* Switching also limits regions that can be simultaneously scanned

15 50
R. MaOý Resracd Ltd
[email protected]
a StdomtO
Company

High Frequency Array roke '~

Circular Array of
inward facing
Fractalled
Exponential Flare
Antennas

Opposing Elements
are cross-polarised
minimising blockage I /

16 0 RoI,. Mý R- Ltd
[email protected] a Senis Conpany

76
77
Determining Direction of Arrival roke"''
Case 1 Case 2
Inthis case the phase of the adiwacert elements In fths case the phae of the ad*jdactelemnents
isSsliphtlYadvanced relative to central elemnent is sllittl reatrded! relatie to centr alaelmen
Wueto earlier arrival of radtiomwve at these due to later arrival of radio vweveat these
elemnents sothe radio wove is arriving foro the elements so the radio vave is arriving from the
left right

RachoVtae

Phate Fronth

19 0 RokeM-ri Sesevi Ltd

[email protected]
~ S~.mes Compew

Array Deployment roke'

Collapsed Array:
Conformal to vehicle
surface

Array Deployed:
Ready for use
II I ý ý !,

20 0 Roka Marv R-cehd Ltd

[email protected]
a Shelters Careany

78
Questions? 1rUke'

21 0 Roke Mýa R~t Ltd

steve.simpsOnroke.co.uk a Sle-~~ Cotapny

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