IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-34, NO.

9, SEPTEMBER 1986

1113

A Technique for an Array to Generate Circular Polarization with Linearly Polarized Elements
Abstrut-A method is presented for generating circularly polarized radiation from an array composed of linearly polarized elements having unique angular and phase arrangements. With this technique the complexity, weight, and RF loss of the array feed can be significantly reduced, especially in a large array. This uniquely formed array has the capability of generating excellent circular polarization (CP) over a relatively wide frequency bandwidth. In addition, the array is capable of scanning its main beam in the principal planes to relatively wide angles from its broadside direction without serious degradation to its CP quality. Another feature of this uniquely arranged array is a reduction in the occurrence of mutual coupling. The discussion in this paper places special emphasis on the microstrip type of radiator, although the technique presented can be adapted to most types of linearly polarized antenna elements.

I. INTRODUCTION

N ARRAY THAT GENERATES circularly polarized radiation is conventionally constructed by using circularly polarized elements. Each element generally requires two feed ports with a hybrid to obtain the required two orthogonal polarizations and a90" phase differential. For wider bandwidth applications, often four feed ports with 0", go", 180" and 270" phase differentials are necessary. For example, in the case of a microstrip radiator, relatively wide impedance and axial ratio bandwidths ( 210 percent) can be achieved by using a thicker substrate with four-probe feeds [l]. These four feeds are needed to suppress the undesired modes formed in the thick substrate. For a large array, such a multiple-probe element feed system would require many cables, hybrids, power dividers and, consequently, would be more expensive, heavier, and more prone to RF loss. In the case of the microstrip radiator, although a printed transmission line feed system (instead of cables) can be used, a significant amount of radiation leakage is anticipated from the multiplefeed printed lines. A circularly polarized element can also be obtainedby using a single feed with some perturbation introduced into the radiator. One example is a single-probe feed conical horn with passive perturbation (tuning) probes orthogonally located in the circular feed waveguide. Another example is a single feed square microstrip patch antenna with a tilted slot [2] introduced at the center of the patch as a perturbation. These
Manuscript received October 7, 1985; revised February 12, 1986. This work was carried out by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The author is with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109. IEEE Log Number 8609128.

perturbation techniques for generating circular polarization (CP), however, have very limited axial ratio bandwidth, generally in the order of one-half percent. This paper presents the theoretical and experimental results to demonstrate that an array, which generates circular polarization with wide axial ratio bandwidth ( > 10 percent), can be constructed by single feed linearly polarized elements [3]. The circular .polarization is achieved by having a basic 2 x 2 subarray with unique element angular and phase arrangements. As shown in Fig. 1, both the element angular orientation and feed phaseare arranged in the 0",90", O", 90" or O D , 90", 180", 270" fashion. With such a system, not only is the feed complexity reduced, but also the bandwidth performance is improved. The reason for reduced feed complexity is because this technique only requires a single feed for each element while four feeds might be needed for each element in a conventional array withwideaxial ratio bandwidth requirement. Due to the orthogonal orientation of neighboring elements, the mutual coupling effect is found to be significantly reduced from that of a conventional array. Finally, this uniquely arranged array can scan its main beamin the principle planes from its broadside direction to relatively wide angles without serious degradation of its CP quality. The concept presented here is good for many different types of antenna elements, such as microstrip patches, dipoles, openended waveguides, horns, etc. The discussion in this paper, however, places special emphasis on the microstrip radiator as a result of a specific project requirement. A brief discussion on the dipole radiator is also presented.

n. TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
The reasonthat a circularly polarized array canbe constructed by linearly polarized elements is primarily attributed to a four-element subarray with unique angular and phase arrangements. This basic subarray has its elements arranged in a 2 X 2 square or rectangular grid configuration with element angular orientation and feedphase arranged in either a 0 " , 90", O " , 90" or a 0 " , 90", 180", 270" fashion. An example that uses microstrip patches is illustrated in Fig. 1. The purpose of different angular orientations of the patches is to generate two orthogonally polarized fields, while different feed phases are used to provide the required phase delays for CP generation. It is well known that circular polarization can be achieved in the broadside direction of an array composed of two linearly polarized elements with angle and phase arranged in a O " , 90" fashion as shown in Fig. 2(a). The CP in this arrangement, however, becomes very poor at angles greater

0018-926X/86/0900-1113$01.00 0 1986 IEEE

..
..

'1 114

JEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-34, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1986
*=

180

I
U
90
*=

1 1
\cI=

l q / =
90
00
(b)
L

q/=

00

Fig. 1. 2 x 2 microstrip arrays that generate CP with LP elements. (a) O", go", On,90" arrangement for narrow-band application, (b) O", go", 180", 270" arrangement for wide-band application.

4
I

Ax
Z
(a)
(b)

Fig. 2.

(a) Two-element microstrip array with On, 90" arrangement. (b) Its spatial phase delay A$' = k&x sin 0.

than 5 ' off broadside direction in the x - z plane asillustrated in Fig. 3. This is caused by the spatial phase delay (A$' = k d x sin 0, see Fig. 2(b)) formed betweenthetwo orthogonallypolarized elements. This spatialphase delay, which disturbs the required 90" phase differential, contributes to the poor CP quality at angles off broadside. Withthe 2 x 2 subarray, shown in Fig. 1, this spatial phase delay no longer exists. This is because, within the two principal planes, the spatial phase delay inone row or column is opposite to that of the other row or column and, consequently, they cancel each other. A calculated principal plane pattern of the 2 x 2 subarray is illustrated inFig. 4, where drastic polarization improvement over that of Fig. 3 can be observed. Due to symmetry, the calculated two principal plane patterns (4 = 0" and 90") are identical to each other and, therefore, only one is shown here. The phenomenon of the 2 X 2 subarray can also be THETA ( 8 ) explained theoretically. From Fig. 5, the far-field patterns in the two principal planes, the x - z plane or the y - z plane, Fig. 3. Calculated CP patterns of the two-element array shown i n Fig. Element spacing is 0.87 wavelength. can be obtained by a direct summation of the fields from all four patches. Let the total far fieldin the x - z plane be denoted by F,, the horizontal field vector frompatch 1 by H I ,

2.

HUANG: CIRCULAR POLAREATIOW

1115

-10

IL = 90"

r!
t
-X

-90

-60

-30

30

60

I
X

THETA ( 8 ) Fig. 4. Calculated principal plane (4 = 0" or 90") CP patterns of the 2 array shown in Fig. 1. Element spacing is 0.87 wavelength.

the vertical field vector from patch 2 by V2,etc. The total far field can then be written as follows:
~ ~ z = H I e - J k o d s i n O e j O+ a

v2 ejkOdsinBej9Oo + H3ejkOdsinlJejO0
- j k o d sin 0

V4e - j k o d

sin eej9O0

- (HI e j O o + F/ le
+( ~ , ~ j + 0 "
2e

j900)ejkod sin 0

(b)

Since this is a uniformly excited array, H I = H3and V2 = V4, Fig. 5. Geometrical layout of the 2 x 2 array for the demonstration of the derivation of (1). therefore: Fxz =(HeJO"+l / e ; 9 0 0 ) ( e - j k o d s i n B + e j k ~ d s i n 0
= ( H e j k o o oV +e j k O 9 O " ) 2

cos (kodsin

1 e).

(1)

The two terms in the first bracket together represent a pure circularly polarized wave, and the cosine term isa twoelement array factor. This total field F, is thus equivalent to that generated from two circularly polarized elements. Within the x - z plane of the array shown in Fig. 5 , the radiated far field is essentially equivalent to that generated from two circularly polarized elements formed by collapsing the toprow two elements with the bottom-row two elements. For a microstrip array with a relatively thick substrate, there is a distinct advantage if the array hasits 2 X 2 subarrays arranged in the 0" , 90", 180", 270" fashion for bothits element orientations and feed phases as shown in Fig. l(b). In this fashion, the axial ratio bandwidth of the array can be increased substantially. This is because most of the radiation impurity (due to higher order modes of the thick substrate) from the 0" element cancels that from the 180" element, and likewise for the 90" and 270" elements. This phenomenon is illustrated in Fig. 6. The solid arrows are edge field due to fundamental TMlomode which generates the co-pol radiation. The dashed arrows are edge field due to TMo2mode which is shown here only as an example and is one of the many modes that contribute to cross-pol. Fig. 6(a) shows that, in the 0", go", 0", 90" arrangement, both co-pol and cross-pol fields from the two diagonal elements reinforce each other, while

Fig. 6(b) demonstrates that, in the 0", 90", 180", 270" arrangement, only the co-pols are reinforced but the cross-pols cancel. It is this cancellation of the cross-pols that permits the wide axial ratio frequency band operation. It is found thatthe above theory for the principal plane fields of the 2 x 2 subarray does not hold true in the diagonal plane(4 = 45" cut). The calculations have revealed a very high cross polarized field, as shown in Fig. 7, at theta (e) angles not very far from the broadside direction. This phenomenon can be best explained by referring to Fig. 8. In this figure, the diagonal plane far field can be thought of as the field generated from a three-element linear array, the center element being composed of two horizontally polarized subelements with 90" phase delay: and each of the two end elements being composed of a single vertically polarized element with 0" phase delay. This three-element array has a nonuniform amplitude distribution with the center element (horizontal polarized) amplitude equal to two, and each of the end element (vertically polarized) amplitudes equal to one. This causes polarization and phase imbalance at angles off the broadside direction in the diagonal plane. The phase imbalance is contributed by the spatial phase delay, similar to that described in Fig. 2. This high cross-pol level in the diagonal plane, however, can be suppressed in a larger array due to its narrower beam and due to an averaging effect so that the imbalances are averaged out. In other words, in a large array, as shown in Fig. 9 or 10, the diagonal plane's polarization imbalance is much less than that of Fig. 8. The

1116

IEEE TRANSACTIONSON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. A P - 3 4 , NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1986

---*
-+=

-00
(a)

I ; .
=900

--311.f=,l: ---+=

00

t
(b)

n9
=900

Fig. 6. (a) O", go", 0",90" arrangementshowing cross-pols reinforce each other. (b) 0",go", 180", 270" arrangement showing cross-pols cancel each other. Solid arrows represent co-pols, dashed arrows represent cross-pols.

' . .

I I

I I ; I I
co-POL

1 1
~

t ----CROSS-POL\

30

60

AMP = 1 PHASE = @

'\

Fig. 8 . 45" diagonalplane confguration.

Fig. 7. CalculatedCPpatterns in thediagonalplane of the 2 X 2 array shown in Fig. 1. Element spacing is 0.87 wavelength.

cross-pol radiation (such as 3 dl3 below co-pol peak) in the direction away from the co-pol peak as shown in Fig. 3. This reader can see this by performing the same exercise as shown high cross-pol is only a result of improper arrangement of inFig. 8 for Figs. 9 and 10. To demonstrate this, a 4 X 4 elements and has nothing to do with each element's phase. One important advantage found to be associated with the array as shown in Fig. 9, and a 2 X 8 array as shown in Fig. 10, have been constructed and tested. Both arrays are type of array discussed hereis that the mutual coupling ofthe significantly less than that of a conventionally composed of the unique 2 X 2 subarray with linearly polarized array is microstrip elements. Thecalculated and measured data of both arranged array. This is due to the fact that all the adjacent elements of this uniquely arranged array are orthogonally arrays (to be presented in the next section) have shown very good CP quality in the diagonal plane, as well as in all other oriented and hence causevery little coupling between immediate neighboring elements. planes. The monolithic array with microstrip elements is playing an It is important to realize that any array with N horizontal and N vertical elements can generateCP at a particular angle important role in the advance of phased array technology. It is feasible to build a linearly, rather than circularly, by proper adjusting each element's phase. However, without more polarized monolithic array with quarter-wave long microstrip proper element location and orientation as presented in this paper, the calculation has shown that the array will have high elements, as illustrated in Fig. ll(a). This is because, by using

HUANG:CIRCULARPOLARIZATION

1117

r-FBr.lU
Fig. 9. 4
X

4 microstrip array composed of the basic 2

2 subarrays with LP elements.

Fig. 10. 2

8 microstrip array composed of the basic 2 x 2 subarrays with LP elements.

L. P. ELEMENTS 7

Fig. 1 1 .

Monolithicarrayconfigurations.(a)

LP application. @) CP application.

the quarter-wave elements, more area can then be realized [4] between elements for the allocation of a phase shifter, a feed line circuit, etc. For an array to radiate circularly polarized radiation, this quarter-wave element, with a conventional array arrangement, can no longer be used since this element can only generate linear polarization. One can certainly resort to a very small circularly polarized element loaded with very

high dielectric constant material. However, such an element generally has a greater amount of electrical loss and can only be used for narrow-band operation. With the uniquely arranged 2 X 2 subarray discussed in this paper, it is possible, by still employing the quarter-wave elements as shown in Fig. 1 to construct a circularly polarized monolithic array with wider bandwidth capability.

le),

1118

TRAh'SACTIONS IEEE

ANTENNAS ON

AND PROPAGATION, VOL. A P - 3 4 , NO. 9, SEF'"BER

1986

III. THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RE~ULTS To verify the theoretical prediction, a 2 X 2 microstrip array with honeycomb substrate has been constructed for the operating frequencies from 800 to 900 MHz. The array, as pictured in Fig. 12, has an element spacing of0.87 wavelength with a substrate thickness of one inch and is fed with the O", 90, 180", 270" arrangement. The relativelywideelement spacing isaimed for a particular program requirement and bears no special significance here. Both calculated and measured patterns of this array are illustrated in Figs. 13 and 14 with the calculation based on the multimode cavity theory [ 5 ] . It can be seen in Fig. 13 that the array is indeed circularly polarized in thetwoprincipalplanes (Q = 0" or 90"). and the agreement between calculation and measurement is rather good. Fig. 14 shows that the diagonal cut (4 = 45") pattern has a very high cross-pol level at angles immediately off the broadside direction as discussed in the previous section. The agreement between calculation and measurement for this figure is good within the angular region of - 60" I0 I -t- 60". The poor agreement outside of that region is attributed to the fact that the calculation is performed on an infinite ground plane while the measurement is carried out ona 30 in x 30 in finite ground plane. Fig. 15 shows two measured principal plane patterns for the same array by using a spinning dipole at frequencies of 821 MHz and 876 MHz. It demonstrates that the main beam peak axial ratio of less than 0.2 dB is essentially unchangedwithin a 6.5 percent bandwidth. Within the 12 percent bandwidth from 800 to 900 MHz, the worst axial ratio was measured to be 0.6 dl3 at the main beam peak. One interesting observation of the measured result is that the array patterns are very symmetrical while the patterns of a single linearly polarized element, measured in the presence of other elements, are rather asymmetrical, as shown in Fig. 16. The asymmetry of the single element is caused by the higher order modes present in the relatively thick substrate with off-center feed andalso caused by mutual coupling effect. These higher order modes, as discussed in the previous section, are mostly canceled in the array environment with the 0", 90", 180", 270" arrangement. The same 2 x 2 array has also been tested in the 0", go", 0",90" arrangement where it shows relatively poor axial ratio bandwidth of about1 percent. The author would like to point out that the 0 " , 90", 0", 90" arrangement shouldbeusedonlywith relatively wide-band elements such as dipoles. It can be used with thin microstrip elements only when a narrow bandwidth is required. To demonstrate that the CP performance in the diagonal plane of a larger array can be substantially improved over that of the 2 x 2 subarray, a 4 x 4 microstrip array composed of four of the 2 X 2 subarrays has been fabricated and tested. The array, as illustrated in Fig. 9 and pictured in Fig. 17, has all linearly polarized elements with element spacing of 0.55 wavelength. Each of its 2 x 2 subarray has the O", 90, 180", 270" element angular and phase arrangements. This microstrip array, designed for operation at 2.27 GHz,has a substrate thickness of 0.125 inch and a relative dielectric constant of 2.17 for the substrate material. Both calculated and measured patterns of the array are shown in Figs. 18 and 19. Fig. 18

Fig. 12. UHF 2 X 2 microstrip arraywith I-inthickhoneycombsubstrate and 0.87 wavelength element spacing. Each element is linearly polarized with single probe feed.
1u
I I

MEASURED co-POL x-POL

---

CALCULATED 0 " 0 a co-POL x x x x x-POL

0" 30" 60" 90" THETA ( 8 ) Fig. 13. CP patterns in the principal plane of the 2 x 2 array shown in Fig.

-90

-60"

-30"

1L.

shows a principal plane cut, while Fig. 19 shows the diagonal plane cut. Both figures indicate very good agreement between calculated and measured results. The diagonal plane pattern does show substantial improvement of the cross-pol level over that of the 2 x 2 subarray illustrated in Fig. 14. In all the other planes (between the diagonal and the principal planes), both measured and calculated data have shown that the CP quality falls between thatof the diagonal and the principal planes. It is important topoint out thatthe comparison between Fig. 14 and Fig. 19 for the diagonal planes may be somewhat misleading because the 2 X 2 array of Fig. 14 has element spacing of 0.87

HUANG: CIRCULAR POLARIZATION

10 I
I

1119
I

MEASURED co-POL x-POL

---

CALCULATED Q Q Q O CO-POL x x x x x-Pot

THETA I

e
X

Fig. 14. CP patterns in the diagonal plane of the 2

0

2 array shown in Fig. 12.

-10
dB

-20

-30

40

3 6 '

-72O

3 6 '

72O

-720

-36O

wavelengthwhilethe 4 x 4 array of Fig. 19 has element spacing of 0.55 wavelength. However, additional calculation for a 2 X 2 array with 0.55 wavelength element spacing has also showna high cross-pol radiation with a similar peak level. The only difference in this case is that the cross-pol peak is moved further away from the broadside direction than the case of 0.87 wavelength spacing. Therefore, one can conclude that the larger array willindeedimprove cross-pol levelinthe diagonal plane regardless of its element spacing. To demonstrate that the concept presented in thispaper will work for a variety of array configurations, in addition to the above 4 X 4 array, a 2 X 8 microstrip array hasalsobeen fabricated and tested. This array also allows an easy demonstration of its main beam scan capability. The array, as

sketched in Fig. 10 and pictured in Fig. 20, is composed of the exact same element and element spacing as that of the 4 x 4 array. Both calculated and measured patterns of the none-scan case are illustrated in Figs. 21, 22, and 23 for pattern cut in the Q = O", 45' and 90" plane, respectively. All three figures not only have demonstrated good agreement between calculation and measurement, but also show excellent CP quality within themainbeamregion especially in the broadside direction. Since the 4 x 4 and the 2 x 8 arrays are built on relatively thin substrates, both arrays show relatively narrow impedance bandwidths of approximately 3 percent. However, due to the cancellation of higher order modes, as discussed previously, much wider axial ratio bandwidths have been obtained. The measured 1 dB axial ratio bandwidth for either array is

1120

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-M, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1986

-10

dB -20

dB

-30

-40 -90
-60

-30

0 THETA

30

60

90

-90 -60

-30

(8)

0 THETA

30
(

60

90

81

Fig. 16. Measured LP patterns of a single element in the 2 x 2 array shown i n Fig. 12.

10
CALCULATED

MEASURED co-POL

0000

co-POL

THETA [ 8 )

Fig. 17. 4 x 4 microstrip array with uniformly excited LP elements. Frequency = 2.27 GHz, substrate thickness = 0.125 in, relative dielectric Fig. constant = 2.17, and element spacing = 0.55 wavelen,&.

18. Principal Plane c p Patterns of the 4 x 4 array shown in Fig.

17

HUANG: CIRCULAR POLARIZATION

1121

10
10
I

-CO-POL

MEAS URED

CALCULATED 0 0 0 0 CO-POL

MEAS URED co-POL --- x -POL

CALCULATED 0 0 0 0 co-POL x x x x x-POL

-10

dB
dB

-20

-30

$ ,
-40

L
-90
-60

-30

0 THETA

e)

30

60

'
X

THETA I e

Fig. 21.

Principal plane (6 = O", see Fig. 10) CP patterns of the 2 array shown in'Fig. 20.

Fig. 19. Diagonal plane CP patterns of the 4 x 4 array shown in Fig. 17.
10
I

MEASURED CO-POL --- x -POL

CALCULATED 0 0 0 0 co-POL x x x x x-POL

-10
dB

-20

-30

-4c

Fig. 20. 2 X 8 microstrip array with uniformly excited LP elements. Frequency = 2.27 GHz, substrate thickness = 0.125 in, relative dielectric constant = 2.17, and element spacing = 0.55 wavelength.

)O
Fig. 22.

-60

-30

0 THETA

30
(

60

90

e)

Diagonal plane (4 = 45', see Fig. 10) CP patterns of the 2 x 8 array shown in Fig. 20.

1122
10
I
I I

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. AP-34, NO. 9: SEPTEMBER 1986
I
I

MEASURED co-POL --- x -POL

CALCULATED co-POL x x x x x-POL

0000

MEASURED co-POL --- x -POL

CALCULATED 0 0 0 0 co-POL x x x x x-POL

-10
dB

-20

-30

-40
THETA ( e ) Principal plane (4 = 90", see Fig. 10) CP patterns of the 2 array shown in Fig. 20.

0
X

-60

-30

Fig. 23.

0 THETA Ie )

30

60

approximately 7 percent. This further substantiates the theory that an array built on thebasis of the technique presented here can have a relatively very wide axialratio bandwidth. The 2 x 8 array also has adjustable phase shifters so that its main beam can be scanned off the broadside direction in the x - z plane (4 = 0" plane). To avoid the formation of grating lobes, the phase shifting for beam scanning is performed at each element level and not at the subarray level. The scanned patterns are shown in Figs. 24-26 with scan angles 19 equal to 25', 40", and SO", respectively. The reader can refer to Fig. 21 for the 0" scan case. As can be seen, the CP quality does degrade as scan angle increases. However, the degradation is not serious and is very similar to that of a conventional array with circularly polarized elements. The agreementsbetween calculation and measurement are generally quite good in Figs. 2426. However, there is certain amount of disagreement in the main beam positions at large scan angles, for example, in Fig. 26. This disagreement is primarily attributed to the fact that the calculation is performed on an infinite ground plane while the measurement is carried out on a finite ground plane [6]. The size of the finite ground plane is 28-in by 22-in with the 28-in length oriented in the scan plane. The measured results have also shown, as expected, that the array main beam peak gain reduces as it scans off the broadside direction. For the 25 ', 40', and 50" beam scans, the peak gain reductions are 1 dB, 2.2 dB, and 4.4 dB, respectively. Since it has been pointed out in the previous sections thatthe concept presented inthis paper should work for different types of antenna radiators in addition to the microstrip patches, a calculation is performed on a 2 X 2 array of half-wave dipoles. This dipole array, as depicted in Fig. 27, is arranged in the 0", 90", 0", 90" fashion with element spacing of 0.5 wavelength. The reason that O", 90", 0", 90" arrangement is used rather than O", 90, 180", 270" is simply because thedipole

Fig. 24. Principal plane (4 = O " , see Fig. 10) CPpatterns of the 2 x 8 array shown in Fig. 20 with main beam scanned to 25" off broadside direction.
10
I

MEASURED co-POL --- x -POL

CALCULATED 0 0 0 0 co-POL x x x x x-POL

m
V
( L

-10

a
W

P
w

3
( L

-2c

-3(I

-4(I

-90

-60

-30

0 THETA

30
(

60

90

Fig. 25. Principal plane (6 = 0 " , see Fig. 10) CPpatterns of the 2 x 8 array shown in Fig. 20 with m a i n beam scanned to 40" off broadside direction.

is a relatively wider band element and no cross-pol needs to be cancelled by the 0", 90", 180", 270" arrangement as required for the thick microstrip element. The patterns of the array are calculated by using the moment method technique [7] with the principal plane pattern shown in Fig. 28(a) and the diagonal plane pattern shown in Fig. 28(b). Both patterns demonstrate similar CP characteristics as that shown in Figs. 13 and 14 for

HUANG: CIRCULAR POLARIZATION

1123

MEA5 URED co-POL x -POL

---

CALCULATED 0 0 0 0 co-POL x x x x x-POL

THETA 1.81

Fig. 26. Principal plane (4 = 0", see Fig. 10) CP patterns of the 2 X 8 array shown in Fig. 20 with main beam scanned to SO" off broadside direction.

ioot
O0

O0

-10
dB

-30

I
I

9oo
Fig. 28.

THETA 1.

eI

(b) Calculated CP patterns of the 2 X 2 dipolearray. (a) Principal plane. (b) Diagonal plane.

generate circularly polarized radiation. The requirement is that the array be composed of the basic 2 X 2 subarray with unique the 2 X 2 microstrip array. The sharp difference in the pattern element angular and phase arrangement. Based on this shapes is primarily a result of different element spacings. The concept, a 2 X 2 UHF array, a 4 X 4 S-band array, and a 2 x similarity in CP characteristics between the microstrip array 8 S-band array have been constructed with linearly polarized and the dipole array indicates that linearly polarized dipoles can microstrip elements. Their measured results have shown- not also be used in a larger array to generate circularly polarized onlythat the array can generate circular polarization with radiation. By utilizing the momentmethod [8], the mutual wider axial ratio bandwidth and very symmetrical beam coupling between the immediate neighboring elements has pattern but also that the mutual coupling effect can be been calculated and found to be significantly less than that ofa significantly reduced. In addition, the 2 X 8 array has conventional array composed of circularly polarized crossed- demonstrated that its main beam can be scanned in the principal plane to relatively wide angles without serious dipole elements. degradation to its CP quality. Certainly, since linearly IV. CONCLUSION polarized elements are being used, the feed complexity, Both theoretical and experimental results have indicated that weight, cost, and RF feed circuit loss can all be reduced, an array consisting of linearly polarized elements can indeed especially in a very large array. Although the discussion

Fig. 27. 2 X 2 array of linearly polarized dipole elements with 0", 90", O", 90" arrangement. Element spacing = 0.5 wavelength.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL.

AP-34, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 1986

presented in this paper has concentrated on the microstrip type of radiator, with some discussion of the dipole radiator, it is believed thatthe concept can be applied toessentially any type of antenna element.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to express appreciation to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Directors Discretionary Fundwhich made this research effort possible. The author also would like to thank Dr. Ken Woo for his support and to Mr. William Folwell and Mr. Alex Miyadi for their assistance in performing the experiment.
REFERENCES

microstrip antennas and applications,IEEE Tram. Antennas P~OPQgat., vol. AP-29, pp. 38-46, Jan. 1981. [6] S. Rengarajan, Finite ground plane effects on planar arrays of microstrip patch elements, i n IEEE Antennas Propagar. SOC. Symp. Dig., June 1984, pp. 741-744. [7] J. Richmond, Computeranalysis of threedimensional wire antennas, ElectroSci. Lab., Ohio State Univ., Rep. 27084, Dec. 1969. [SI --, Mutual impedance between coplanar-skew dipoles, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., pp. 414416, May 1970.

[l] T. Chiba, Y. Suzuki, and N. Miyano, Suppression of higher modes and cross polarized component for microstrip antennas, in IEEE Antennas Propagat. SOC.Int. Symp. Dig,, May 1982, pp. 285-288. Microstrip polarization techniques, in Proc. Antenna [2] J . Kerr, Appl. Symp., Urbana, IL, 1978. [3] J. Huang, C.P. microstrip array with wide axial ratio bandwidth and n IEEE Antennas Propagat. Soc. Int. single feed L.P. elements, i Symp. Dig., June 1985, pp. 705-708.
[4]

R. Stockton and M. Balint, 15 GHz microstrip array development.

Ball Aerospace Syst. Div. Final Rep. RADC-TR-80403. Feb. 1981. An improved theory for [SI W. Richards, Y. Lo, and D. Harrison,