10 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENXAS AND PROPAGATIOn January

A Parasitic Slot Array*

Summay-The analysis of an endfire array of tunable parasitic
slots is described. Self and mutual admittances between thin half-
wavelength slots are found by an application of Babinets Principle.
To solve the circuit equations of the array, the condition is imposed
that the phase velocity remain constant along the array. Then, by
matrix inversion, the excitation amplitude and self-reactance of the
parasiticelementsaredetermined. The phase of the reflector is
chosen tomaximize the coupling betweenthe driven element and the
directors. Finally, experimentalpatternsarecomparedwith com-
puted results.
I. INTRODUCTION
H E ARRA\ described here is the slot equivalent
end of a rectangular waveguide which propagates only
the dominant mode. Variation of the self-reactance of
the parasitic elements is accomplished by terminating
each of the parasitic slots in a rectangular cavity. The
length of the cavity thenbecomes the parameter which
determines the self-reactance of the parasitic element.
11. SELF AND %IUTUAL AADMITTAXKCES
Self and mutual admittancesof waveguide-fed slots in
a ground plane must be known in order to make array
calculations from the network equations. A relation be-

T of a Yagiarray of magneticelements. I t t h u s
possesses the desirable impedance characteristics
of the Yagi antenna and mag be designed to permit
tween the driving point admittance of a waveguide-fed
slot in a ground plane and the impedance of the dual
wire antennamaybeobtainedfromBabinetsprin-
tuning the array over a range of frequencies. Pattern ~ i p l e For
. ~ narrow slots havinga sinusoidal distribution
calculations for Yagi antennas are available in the lit- of transverse electric field along the length of the slot
eratureonly for short antennas having three of four the followingsimplerelationshipisobtained (see Ap-
elements.1 Such calculations are impractical for longer pendix) :
arrays because the number of parameters which may be
ys = n%, (1)
varied increases with the number of elements. Conse-
quently, experimental techniques are usually employed where ys is the slot admittance, z, is the impedance of
in the design of Yagi antennas. the wire antenna normalized to the intrinsic wa17e im-
I n a recent paper, Ehrenspeck and Poehler? conclude, pedance of free space and n? is a function of waveguide
from phase measurements made in the vicinity of Yagi geometry. For a single slot in a ground plane, y s is the
arrays, that the maximum gain of a Yagi antenna is self admittance, y l l , of the slot, andzw is thenormalized
dependentonlyuponthephasevelocityalongthe self impedance, 211, of the dual wire antenna. Hence,
antenna. hIotivated by these results, the condition for from (1)
constant phase lag between adjacent directors is here
imposed upon the circuit equations of a Yagi antenna. y11 = 12?811. (2)
This approach allows the calculation of the parameters For a pair of slots, (1) may be written
of aYagiantennawithoutthenecessityfor experi-
mental adjustment. y11(y11 +y d - YlZ2 Zll(Z11 + ZL) - 2122
. (3)
The slot configuration which forms the Yagi array is
shown in Fig. 1. The driven elementis excited from the
3 1 + yL
= n 2
811 I- ZL
From the duality relationship, it may be seen t h a t a
9 ! ? 3 ? 5 6 r-1 short-circuited
wire
antenna (ZL.= 0) corresponds
anto
open-circuited slot antenna ( y =~0). Substituting this
and (2) in ( 3 ) yields
y12 = ?t2Zl?. (4)

Eq. (2) and (4), together with the value of n2 from (39),
L W N ~ T ECONWTI~VC provide the necessary relationships for computation of
SHEET
the self and mutual admittances between slots. For the
Fig. 1--An endfire array of half-wavelength slots. arraycalculationsin following sections of thispaper,
impedances have been calculated from Carters formulas
*Received January 28, 1963;revisedmanuscriptreceivedSep- for thin linear wire antennas.4
tember 6, 1963.
t Boeing Company, Seattle, Wash.
fSpace Technology Laboratories, El Segundo, Calif.
1 W. Lvalkinshaw, Treatment of short Yagiaerials, J. I E E , vol. H. G. Booker,Slotaerials andtheir relation to Cornplernen-
93, Part 111.4, p. 598; 1946. tary wire aerials, J . I E E , vol. 93, Part III.A, pp. 620-626; 1946.
2 H. L.5. Ehrenspeck and H. Poehler, A new method for obtain- P. S. Carter, Circuit relations in radiating systems and applica-
ing maximumgainfromYagi antennas, IRE TRANS. ON ANTENNAS tions to antenna problems, PROC.IRE, vol. 20, pp. 1004-1041;
A ~ PROPAGATION,
D \d. AP-7,
pp. 379-386; October, 1959. June, 1932.
1964 Coe and Held: Parasitic Slot Array 11

11I. THEA R R A Y PROBLEM where 6 is the phase lag between adjacent elements and
I n pattern calculations, the array5 is considered to be the elements have been numberedas indicated in Fig. 1.
composed of magnetic current elements with amplitudes The amplitude factors, K,, represent the ratio between
proportionaltothetangentialelectric fields inthe the magnitudes of voltage in the nth element and the
slots.Waveguidevoltages, v , andcurrents, i, will be drivenelement. Also, sinceadjacentelementshave
defined as proportional to the dominant mode electric identicalspacing,themutualadmittancesmay be
andmagnetic fields respectively. Thestrength of a written
magneticcurrentelementisthenproportionaltothe 3'kn = Y n k = yl(ln-kl+l) for 12 # k - (12)
correspondingtransmissionlinevoltageevaluated at
the plane of the slot. If v and i are also defined sucht h a t Substituting (11) and (12) in (10) yields
theequivalenttransmissionlinerepresentationhas r
unity characteristic impedance, then the circuit nodal YIL- + n=2
(1 - sak)yl(ln-I;I+1~Kne-j(~-1)8
equation for the kth element ma); be written
+ ykkKke-j(*l)O = 0 (13)
II
where
where, from (4)
&&= {01 for ?z # k
for rt = k.
T h e circuit equation for a parasitic slotwill be modified Separating (13) into real and imaginary parts yields
by expressing the current in the planeof the slot, 6 , in two sets of I - 1 equations. The relative voltage ampli-
terms of the susceptance of its cavity, bk". tudes, K,, may be considered one setof r - 1 independ-
ent variables and the susceptances bill another set of
r-1 independentvariables.Eliminatingthe b: from
where for a rectangular cavity of length I ; r - 1 of the equations derived from (13) yields a set of
I - 1 equations in the Y - 1 unknown amplitudes, K,.
These may be written in matrix form as
Substituting (7) in ( 5 ) yields
AX=H (14)
A where H = (h,) and X = (x,) are r - 1 by 1 column
matrices having elements
Combining the cavity susceptance with the slot sus-
ceptance yields an equation of the form k, = bl(W1) - gl(m+l) cotd (15)
cn
yknz'n = 0 and
xm = Km+l. (16)
where
-4 = (am,,)is an I- 1 order square matrix having ele-
ments

For an r element Yagi with a singledrivenelement,

+
6,= cot d [ b l ( l r n - n l + l ) sin I Z ~ g l ( I m - n l + l ) COS ne]
4- [gl(lm-nl+l) sin tz0 - b l ( l m - n l + l ) cos ne]. (17)
there are r - 1 equations of the form (10). These may be
solved for the voltage amplitudes of the parasitic ele- T h e voltages, K,, may then be obtained by matrix in-
ments relative to the voltageof the driven element. The version:
circuit equation of the form ( 5 ) may then beused t o
calculate the input admittance of the driven slot.
x = A-'B. (18)
The singularities of cot mB may be removed from (15)
A. Driven Element with Directors and (17) by multiplying both sides of (14) by tan
Consider now a n r element Yagi antenna with r - 1 when cot me > 1.
directors. Equal spacing between elements will be as-
sumed and without loss of generality the voltage of the B. Yagi with Reflector
driven element may be taken as unity. Then, the ele- Treatment of arrays with a single reflector is identical
ment voltages may be written to t h a t in the preceding section except that the reflec-
Inn = K,e-i(n-l)O tor spacing and phase allowed are to takeon values other
(11)
than those common to the directors. Separation of the
circuitequationsintorealandimaginarypartsand
5 \i'. \V. Hanson and j . R. \Voodyard, "A new principle in di-
rectional antenna design, PROC.IRE, vol. 26, pp. 333-345; March, elimination of the bj' fromtheresultingequations
1938. yields a matrix equation analogous to (14) :
12 TRANSACTIONS
IEEE ON ANTENATAS
PROPAGATION
AND January

A'X' = H'. (19)

Thematrices X' and H' maybeobtainedfromthe
matrices X and H. by augmenting the latter with an
additional row

where x. = K Ois the amplitude of excitation of the re-

flector, and

HI= (Z) -05 v

where
Fig. 2-Relative excitation of elements along a
ho = - (gal cot eo + boll. three wavelength Yagi array.

Similarly, A' may be obtained by augmenting A with

an additional row and column maximumgainforYagisdesignedtohaveconstant
phaselagbetweenadjacentelements.Theoptimum
phase velocity for antennas shorter than three wave-
lengthsoccursbetweenthecorrespondingHanson-
Woodyard value and the experimental valuesof Ehren-
where speckandPoehler.Thecurves of Ehrenspeckand
Poehler were obtained by adjusting the length of the
directors. Consequently, the mutual impedances of their
elements differ from those of the half-wavelength ele-
ments considered here.
Optimization of the array with respect to the reflector
involves both the reflector phase and its spacing. Some
and insight into the effect of reflector spacing may be ob-
tained by considering the feeder-reflector combination
alone.Maximumcouplingtothearraywouldbe ex-
pected a t approximatelythereflectorspacing,ampli-
tude and phase of excitation that produce maximum
Therearetwoadditionalparametersinvolved in the forwardradiation of the feeder-reflectorcombination,
solution of (19) as compared with (14). These are the alone.According tothe calculations of Brown,G a n
phase difference, 0 0 , between the reflector and director optimumspacingforforwardradiationis do= 0.15X.
and thereflector spacing, do. However,fortheX-bandantennaswhichhavebeen
constructed,somewhatwiderspacings of 0.25X and
IV. COMPUTED RESULTS 0.34X have been employed. According to the data of
Usingequations (14)-(18) and (19)-(24), the array Brown, these wider spacings result in a reduction from
problem has been programmed on a digital computer. the optimum feeder-reflector gain of about 1.0 db and
For a given spacing and phase velocit):, the program 2.1 db, respectively.
yields the voltage amplitudes, K,. Calculated voltage Havingselected a reflectorspacing, the reflector
distributions along a three wavelength array are shown phase is optimizedfor a particularlengtharrayby
in Fig. 2 for interelement spacings of 0.15X and 0.30h. maximizing the coupling between the directors and the
T h e 0.15X spacing results in small excitation of alter- feeder. As a measure of this coupling, the array coupling
nate elements. Calculations for spacings between 0 . 1 3 coefficient inanarraywith r directorsisdefinedas
and 0.30X show a gradual transition between the two the amplitude factorK,-z. The array coupling coefficient
distributions in Fig. 2. The negative amplitudes of ex- for a 3.4X array with reflectorspacings of 0.25X and
citationplottedforthefirstdirectorindicate a 180' 0.34X is plotted as a functionof reflector phase in Fig.3.
phase shift from the assumed phase. In both cases, maximum coupling occurs a t a reflector
Havingcalculatedthevoltages,thearraypattern phase Bo= 135". As expected from the considerations of
may be calculated. From such calculations the phase theprecedingparagraph,largercouplingisobtained
velocity which will yield maximum fonvard gain of the with the 0.25X spacing than with the0.34X spacing. T h e
array has been found. It is concluded t h a t for arrays
longer thanaboutthreewavelengths,theHanson- 6 G. H. Brown, "Directional antennas," PROC.IRE, vol. 25,
Woodyard phase
velocity will yield
approximately pp. 78-145; January, 1937.
1964 C'oe and Held: Pa?

t T= 0.88

Fig. 5-Three element slot array.

I I I I I . I I I I I
6
0' 120 180' 240 300" 360
REFLECTOR PHASE eo

Fig. 3-Array coupling coefficient as a function of reflector phase for

3.4 wavelength array.

Fig. 6-3Ieasured radiation pattern of two element array.

thepatternminimumoccurs,thephaseangle of the
mutual admittance may be measured. If the driven ele-
ment is excited with a voltage, 171, then the magnitude
of the field at an angle 4 with respect to the axisof t h e
array is
-25 .34 .68 1.02 136 1.70 204 238 232 3.06 340
DISTANCE ALONG ARRAY W WAVELENGTHS I HW, I (YVl(1+ 82 - 2p cos $)
Fig. 4-The effect of a reflector upon excitation of the elements of a where
3.4 wavelength Yagi array.

voltage distribution along 3.4X

a array with and without
a reflector are compared in Fig. 4. a n increase in cou-
pling is the primary effect obtained by the addition of
a reflector.
V. ESPERIMEYTAL
RESULTS
Two slot arrays have been constructed. One of these,
a three element array witha director and reflector, was and d is the distance between elements. A minimum Of
constructed before the theory was developed in order to (26) occurs at an angle,40, given by
testexperimentallythedualitybetweencavity-tuned
parasitic slots and stub-tuned wire elements. A photo-
graph of thisarrayappears in Fig. 5. Elementsare goo
(27) 2).
spaced 0 . 2 3 a t afreespacewavelengthX=3.6cm.
The cavities were constructed from X-band waveguide Solving (27) for tan+ bol/go, gives
having cross-sectional dimensions 0.400 by 0.900 inch.
Tuning is accomplished with sliding shorts. Several pat-
terns of a two element array were obtained from this by
covering one of the parasitic slots with metal foil. One Since boo and g o o may be determined by independent
such pattern is shown in Fig. 6. From the angle atwhich measurement,thephaseangle of themutualadmit-
 14 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENhTAS AND PROPAGATION January

tancemaybeobtainedfrom (28) bymeasuringthe

angle, 40.
The slots of the two element array are of resonant
length so that the selfsusceptance of the reflectoris
given by
27r
boo = bo = - cot - (lo - ro) (29)
x,
where lo is the position of the short and Y O is a reference
position which is a multiple of Xg/2 from the slot. Sub-
stituting $0 = 117" and values of lo, 70 and Xg from Fig. 6
into equations (28) and (29) yields the phase angle of
the mutual admittance between elements spaced 0.25-
X apart:
Fig. '/-Twelve element slot array.
bo1
tan-' - = 34" (measured). -
- --
- -- -C&C"LATED I R P A Y LELBT" ,.,L
go1 -NEaYIRED DIRECTOR S P K l N B
PHlSE V E L 3 i l 3
,341

.
0.88

. 90-
RLFLECiOR WACIN5
REFLEtiDi! PHASE
.3!A
135 -
Calculations from the formulasof Section I1 yield:

bo1
t a r 1 - = 35" (calculated).
go1

The agreementis correct within the estimated accuracy

of theangularmeasurements.Themagnitude of t h e
mutual admittance may also be determined from two
element array patterns by measuring, in addition to the
angle, the ratio between the maximum and minimum -25 -EO -15 -10 -5 0
RELATIVE POWER OE?ISITI IN DECIBELS
field strengths. However, an accurately calibrated sys-
tem is necessary for good results. Fig. 8-Calculated and measured radiation pattern of
1.7 wavelength array.
The other arraywhich has been constructed is shown
in Fig. 7. I t consists of twelve slots spaced 0.34X apart - --- CALCULATED ARRArLENGTH 3.41 - -
a t a free space wavelength of 1.4 inches.Cavities for -MEASURED DIRECTORSPACING .34)1
--
-
PHASEVELOCITY 0.88
REFLECTORSPACING .341
this array werealsoconstructedfromX-bandwave- 11
0-
100- 90.
I
80.
-.7
- REFLECTORPHASE 135.

guide equipped with sliding shorts. Using the formulas

of Section 111-B, the positions of the shorts required to
produceagivenphasevelocityalongthearraywere
calculated.
The pattern for a five director array was obtainedex-
perimentally by covering five of the directors of the
twelve element array with metal foil. The resulting ar-
ray has a length, exclusive of the reflector, of 1.7X. T h e
calculated radiation pattern for this array with a phase -20 -15 -10 -5 0
RELATIVE POWER DENSITY OECIBEL5 IN
velocity v , / G = 0.80 and areflectorphaseof 135" is
shown in Fig. 8. With the cavities adjusted to the cal- Fig. 9-Calculated and measured pattern of 3.4 wavelength array.
culated positions, the measured radiation pattern, also
shown in Fig. 8, was obtained. The irregularities in the of the ground plane, compares favorably with the meas-
pattern, which appear in all the measured patterns, are urements of Ehrenspeck and Poehler.
due to the discontinuity at the edge of the 48-inch-
square ground plane. With this array operated as a ten VI. CONCLUSIONS
director array, the length excluding thereflector is 3.4X. Equivalencebetweenaparasiticslotarrayand a
The calculated and measured radiation patterns for the Yagi array of wire elements has been established. The
Hanson-Woodyardphasevelocity, V , / G = 0.88, are slot array provides a flush mounting antenna having the
shown in Fig. 9. T h e endfire gain of this antenna on a n desirablegainandfeedcharacteristicsof a l-agian-
18-inch-diametercirculargroundplanehasbeenac- tenna. It is suitable as a missile antenna or for other
curately measured to be14.0 f 0.2 db above an isotropicapplicationswhereanantennahavingnoprojection
radiator. This gain, which depends upon the diameter above a plane surface is required. A method has also
1964 Coe a.nd H e l d : Yarasiiac Slot A w a y 13

beenpresented for calculatingtheparameters of a space. For a symmetrical aperture, the tangential com-
Yagi antenna which will provide a given phase velocity ponents of the field may be expanded as follows:9
along the array. The technique may be used for both
RX
slot arrays and conventional arrays of wire elements. E, = A sin - (e-iaz f rei@)
The theory has been verified by comparing calculated a
and measured radiation patterns of a twelveelement
slot array. Accuracy of the calculations is sufficient t o
make experimental tuning of the array unnecessary.
Additional calculations of the type described in this
paper may provide more general information about the
characteristics of Yagiarral-s.Theoptimumphase
velocity as a function of array length could be calcu-
lated for the case when the elements are stub tuned. Of
interest also are the effects of director spacing on the
frequency response of arrays and pattern effects d u e t o
periodic variation of the various antenna parameters.

APPENDIX-THE
ADMITTANCE OF A ~VAVEGUIDE-
FEDSLOT
The coordinate slystems of a centered slot in the end where
of a rectangular waveguide of width, a , and height, b , 0 for m = 1 and IZ = 0
are shown in Fig. 10. aperture coordinates are desig- A10 =
1 otherwise

and

-4ssuming the aperture distribution in ( 3 0 ) , the mode

amplitudes are

nated by ( f , 7) and the transverse coordinates of the

waveguide by (x,y). Assume an aperture distribution
4
d Am, = - E,,EsmX2
E,, = E,, COS-
ab
C

where c is thelength of the slot. It may readily be where

shownfromBabinetsPrinciple7 thatthecurrentat 1 for PZ # 0
the centerof the complementarq? wireantenna is related Emn =
to thefield at the centerof the slot by $ for n = 0

I, = 2dYoE,, (31) and LVland Ne are the integrals

where d is the slot width.
Similarly, the voltage induced in a thin wire antenna,
V,, is related to the magnetic
field in the apertureof tkie
dual slot antenna bya
el2
l/F = zo
S
-c;?
TE
H, COS - df
C
(32)

where 2 0 = 1/ Yo is the intrinsic wave impedanceof free

R. E. Collin, Field Theory of Guided Waves, McGraw-Hill

Book Company, Inc., New York, X. Y., pp. 29-34; 1960. 9 L. Lewin, Advanced Theory of LfTaveguides, Iliffe and Sons,
6 Carter, o p . cit., see (4). Ltd., London, England, p. 89; 1951.
16 IEEE TRAh1SACTIOh7S O N AMTEhTNAS PROPAGATION
AhTD January

Solving (31) for E,, and substituting the resultin the where
first of ( 3 5 ) yields the dominant mode voltage at the
aperture in termsof the current in thewire antenna, I,:
20 cos2 -
~ ~+ (r) =1 -
ab
XJ,. (36)

A similar expression may be obtained for the dominant

mode current in terms of the voltage of a wire antenna.
Multiplying both sides of (34) by cos T(/Cand integrat-
ing over the aperture yields mnh lZTd
cos2 - sin2 -
4a 2b
d P X
S -cl?
HSzC O S - dE
C
= A o( 1 + r) 1'0 -
k 1 --
,fi?h2

4a2
112g2dP

4b2
and

Substituting for the integral from (32) and solving (37)

for A (1-r>yields
Dividing (38) by ( 3 7 ) and letting the length of the slot
Thesymbols x e and Eo
indicatesummationsover
even and odd indices, respectively. T h e procedure used
in evaluating b,' was to establish an upper bound to the
error in truncating the series (39). The corresponding
partial sums were then calculatedon a computer. These
calculations show that, to a very close approximation,
b,' may be neglected entirely. This results in an admit-
tance, ys,which is proportional to the impedance of the
dual wire antenna; that is

the slot, y.:

c=X/2 yields the foll2wing for the input admittance of

where zw=Zw!Z~
ys = d z ,
is the impedance of the wire antenna
(40)

normalized totheintrinsicwaveimpedance of free

space.

Calculation of Radiation Heating in a

MicrowaveLuneberg Lens"

Summary-A microwave ,Luneberg lens is heated by radiation
from the feed. The resultant temperature rise iscalculated in terms
of thethermalconductivity and electricdissipationfactor of the
lens dielectric for the wavelength of the microwave radiation. The
temperature rise at the center of a lens is calculated, taking into
account the varied properties of the dielectric within the lens. The
spherical symmetry of the lens substantially simplifies this calcula-
tion. Thetemperaturedistribution within thelens is calculated,
neglecting the varied thermal conductivity and dissipation factorsof
* Received February 15, 1963; revisedmanuscriptreceived
September 30, 1963. The work reported here was originally presented
as Rept. 1064P of \Vheeler Laboratories, Incorporated.
t \heeler Laboratories, Incorporated, Great Neck, X. Y .
the lens. A spherical inversion (Kelvin transform), centered at the
feed, is used to transform the lens surface toa plane so that the heat
flow may be calculated.The hottestpoint is at the feed; the tempera-
ture rise being about twice that at the center.In the limit of low dis-
sipation factor, the lens diameter has no effect on temperature be-
cause of the compensating effects of thermal resistance and dissi-
pated power variations with lens size.
I . IXTRODVCTIOK
N A MICROWAVE Luneberglensoperated
1
high

culation
power, the loss in the dielectric results

of the temperature rise from this effect

in
sipation of power and heating of the lens. The cal-
at
dis-

is the