A SYNTHESIS ?

VETHODFOR CIRCULAR AND CYLINDRICAL

ANTENNAS C O W B E D OF DISCElETE ELEMENTS9
T .T Taylor
Researoh and Development L a b o r a t o r i e a
Eughes
CulverCity, Calif,

Antennas oomposed of d i s c r e t e elements equally spaoed i n angle

around a o i r o l e or o i r o u l a r o y l i n d e r studied wtth t h e o b j e o t i v e
of d e s i g n i n g such a n t e n n a s t o produoe r e q u i r e d a z i m u t h a l r a d i a t i o n
patterns
B c h has a l r e a d y been written upon this subjeot undep t h e as-
sumption t h a t a o o n t i n u o u s d i s t r i b u t i o n of elementary sources sill
be an a o o e p t a b l e s o l u t i o n t o t h e design problem o r a t l e a s t
form a s t e p i n the a t t a i n m e n t of a n aooeptablesolution. I n the
present writing, however, it i s f e l t that something may be gained
by analyzing the problem from the beginning on the basis of discrete
elemsnts, The q u e s t i o n of how many elements needed i s discuoj-
sed in d e t a i l and i t is shown that the envelope of t h e e x c i t a t i o n
c o e f f i c i e n t s i s not n e o e s s a r i l y e q u i v a l e n t t o the continuous solu-
tion available by o t h e r methods. B r a o t i o a lp r o o s d u r e sf o r finding
theenvelopeof t h e e x c i t a t i o n o o e f f i c i e n t s , and henoe the c o e f f i c i -
ents themselves, are o u t l i n e d ,
J

I, Scope of t h e Analysis

antenna array has b e e n d e f i n e d l "a series of i d e n t i c a l

and i d e n t i o a l l y o r i e n t e d radiating slemenfs whose r e s p e c t i v e current
distributions geomtrioally similar," I n easence, this means
that any element of the array may be made t o ooinaide meohaniaally
with any o t h e r elemsat by a s i m p l e t r a n s l a t i o n without r o t a t i o n and
that; s u p e r p o s i t i o n of the element patkerns beapplied, In the
of arrays of d i p o l e s , f o r example, the l a t t e r s t a t e m e n t Implies
that a l l but one of the d i p o l e s an *ray open-c~cuited
a t the* f e e d p o i n t s and the remaining element i s d r i v e n , then the
open-clrcuited elements oarry no current whatsoever and t h e f i e l d
is t h a t of the d r i v e ne l e m e n ta l o n ei nf r e es p a c e , This
mean "that mutual e f f e o t s do n o t exist, but Pathera that suoh effects
aremanifestedonly terms added t o t h ef e e dp o i n tc u m e n t s , If
t h i s c o n d i t i o n i s f u l f i l l e d , thecustomary methods of array analysis

%Work d e s c r i b e d i n t h f s paper was o a r r i e d o u t t h r o u g h t h e sponsor-

shfp of the A i r F o r m Cambridge Research Laboratory under Contract
AF 19 (122)

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
apply and the faP zone f i e l d pattern i s given as

Here the ht,

the Hexcitation coeffiaients" of thearray and
respeotively proportional t o the feed point ourrents; the am the
F
position v e a t m s assooiated with the respeotLve dipoles; a is a u n i t
vector which points the observer; k -and .(r,QJ$) is
the f i e l d pattern of a single dipole, For arrays of s l o t s an i n -
f i n i t e oonduotinggraundplane,the feed point might be a point i n
the feeding waveguide r o u g h l y h g / 2 behindthe s l o t and the voltags
at t h i s point would determine the excitation coefficient of the s l o t .
The a p p l i o a b i l i t y of array analysis would be judged by the pattern
obtained when'one a l o t is driven and a l l the r e s t t h e i r feedlng
waveguides short-oirouited by. a oonduoting septum at the feed p o i n t ,
that is, when thew exoitation o o e f f i u i e n t s are made to be identi-
o a l l y zero. If t h i s pattern i s tbe that of the driven s l o t
alone i n otherwise ungunotured oonduoting planeJ then array the-
ory i s exactly applicrable.
The arrays discussed might be Galled " p a r a l l e l arrayd'
from the f a o t that there is no r o t a t i o n of theelements with respect;
one another. The of antenna be considered i n this paper
might be o a l l e d a "oirctularly disposed array", term whioh has al-
ready been i n t h e l i t e r a t u r e , and w f i l be defined as an assembly
of Identioal r a d i a t i n g elemsnts relatzve orientations a m such
that any element; of the array may be made t o ooinctide meahaniaally
with any other element by simple r o t a t i o n about; a f i x e d axis, and
which has the property that superposition of the element patterns
1s possible
The oonditiona for the u m of superposition are the as
before and need not be repeated. The f i e l d s external t o the antea-
na given by
I I

Again the are the exoitation ooeffioients of the elements and

respeotively proportional to the ourrents o r voltages a t the
feed p o i n t s ; the funotion 8, (r,e,$ -/st> is the pattern of a single
elementlooated a t the a n g l e p t . The a n g 1 e . P i s measured i n the
manner t h a t i s , oounteralookwise about the 2 arris from

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
the X a x i a , assuming that the former i s the axis of aymmetry of the
antenna.
The purpose of t h i s paper i s t o provide a p r a o t l c a l method f o r
finding t h e A t auch that the f i n a l p a t t e r n , i n the far
zone w i l l be as desired, Generally this of patte'm s y n t h e s i s
be done only with respect t o the v a r i a b l e f o r a given cone
and only f o r ' one o r t h e other of the tangential veotor
oomponents of that i s , f o r e i t h e r Ee or E L e t E withaut tbe
q e o t o r bar be- a generalimd n o t a t i o n for e i t er EQ or E$, and let
be a radius which is g r e a t e r than the distanoe t o the baundary
f
of t h e far zone. Then

1% may be objected that t h e s o l u t i o n is obvious from (3); o m has

but; solve the matrix equation

given the of E for 3 0,1,2,0.*T=1.

It is granted that this i s a legitimate procedure; o e r t i a n draw-
backs must be p o i n t e d out, however, These are: (a) The msthod i s
b d i o u s , especially f o r large T; (b) There i s no way of pre-
d i o t i n g the of E between of the $3, nor of s e t t i n g up
qualitatively the a o n d i t i o n s ovhioh w;ill guarantee the behav-
ior" of E i n these regions; The method f a i l s If, i n a beam shap-
Lng problem, one wishes t o impose o o n d i t i o n s only upon \E\rather
than upon E itself.
The proaedure be advancred here applies only when the elements
are equally spaced but removes the above mentioned drawbaoks in suoh
This is done by f o c u s i n g a t t e n t i o n upon the F o u r i e r ooef-
f i q i e n t g of E rather than upon the of E at disorete p o i n t s ,
It should be mentioned that c i r c u l a r l y d i s p o s e d arrays may in-
olude not only such as d i p o l e s arranged on a o i r o l e i n free
spaoe,but a l s o d i p o l e s a r r a n g e d on a o i r o l e and baoked by a oylin-
r e f l e c t o r (in which case ths c u r r e n t s on t h e c y l i n d e r due t o
a single dfpole p a r t of the "element"formed by that d i p o l e ) ,
s l o t s arranged in a a t r o l e on a conducting o i r o u l a r o y l i n d e r ,
criroularlg disposed array may inolude more than one tier, that is,
t h e r e may be several "rings" with a oomon axis, In this the
array d e f i n i t i o n s t i l l a p p l i e s if eaoh t i e r has the number of

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 1
u n i t s and if ths u n i t s i n a t i e r have the sans r e l a b b e ex-
csitations as the u n i t s i n any other tier, The term “element” is
now reserved for an assembly of oorrespondlng units from each t i e r ;
t h i s assembly has the p r o p e r t y that a rotation about the o o m o n
a x i a brings i t into coincfdenoe 8vit’n the next suoh assembly, and
it p o s s e s s e s a feed p o h t with t h e r e q u i s i t e p r o p e r t i e s , the
d e f i n i t i o n of an element is f u l f i l l e d ,
11. Fourier Serie.3 Expressions
Following Harrington and Le Pages, the element f a o t o r in the
f a r zone will be expressed a F o u r i e r series:

Here Vo is i n t e n d e dt oi n a l u d e all I n c i d e n t a l constants. Thai; an

expression suoh om be written is e v i d e n t f r o n the
f a o t that; a formal i n t e s a t i o n of the retarded c u r r e n t s in the e l -
ement from which the far zone eleotrio f i e l d may be calculated)
be put i n the form of (5). Let the current d e n s i t y i n the
element be

By a d e r i v a t i o n which is t o o l o n g to be included here3 it may be

shown that

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 I n these e q u a t i o n s t h e l i m i t s of i n t e g r a t i o n are ohosen as
to enclose the o u r r e n t d i s t r i b u t i o n , P.S. Carter* 'as analyzed
some elementary c y l i n d r i c a l o o n f i g u r a t i o n s and has also given the
r e s u l t s i n Fourier series form.
If i s subatituted h t o (3) t h e r e s u l t i s an e x p r e s s i o n of
the t o t a l p a t t e r n a Fourier a e r i e s :

rearranged follows:

that; the Fourier c o e f f i o i e a t s of the far zone pattern,

The problem i s now one of f i n d i n g the At such t h a t a s a t i s f a a t m y

series of be obtained. This t a s G would be. impossible were
i t not f o r the f a o t t h a t the number of important f a r zone c o e f f i o i -
e n t s is very effeotfvely l i x i t e d t o a f i n i t e numbers, N. Phis is
t r u e because Gn(Qo) b e o o m s v a n i s h i n g l y small when In I beoollses
er than a o e r t a i a m a x i m u m ,,n whioh i s s l i g h t l y l a r g e r than
ka s i n Here is the radius of the cylinder which en-
closes the c u r r e n t d i s t r i b u t i o n . This is another m a n i f e s t a t i o n of
the i m p o s s i b i l i t y of super g a i n antennas, and oan be demonstrated by
n o t i n g that i n (7) and t h e behavior of the Gn(Q,) w i t h , r e s p e o t
t o n is dominated by Bessel f'unctions o f the first kind. The
ment of these f i n c t i o n s ranges from zero up to ka s i n 8, and it is
a well-known f a c t that when the order of these funations exceeds
t h e i r argument, t h e i r value quickly becomes negligible. T h s the
An c o e f f i c i e n t s whioh d e s o r i b e the d e s i r e d f a r zone p a t t e r n mst
l i e in the c e n t r a l irztemal -nm n 6 ,,n although t h i s e n t i r e range

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 need not neoessarily be t h a t is, N may be equal to or l e s s
than 2n, 1.
The N desired far zone o o e f f i o i e n t s may be found by any of
eral methods of whicth the following fypioal:
1, F o u r i e r analysis (by i n t e g r a t i o n ) of the desired E(r,,Q
followed by a disoarding of a l l c o e f f i o i e n t s f o r whioh In (H-1?/2*
2. Use of the method of Dolph6 find the A, e o e f f i c l e n t s
suoh that the s f d e lobes of Ea(ro,Qo,$) all equal and have a pre-
soribed level.
3, Uae of the method of Taylor and mbinneryl whhh E (pol
Qo,p) i.s regarded the profile of a polynosnlal in the
variable The r o o t s of this .polgno&al adjusted u n t i l r
lE(~o,Qo$) d e s i r e d and the c o e f f i o i e n t s of the polyaomial is'

the required An.

Oncre'it is de'o%dedthat p a r t i c u l a r series ,of An o o e f f i a i e a t s
is wanted, it beoomes neaessary t o solve N equations of the form of
(U.) fop the.At;,
1x1. Solviag for the Excitation C o e f f i o i e n t s

The s o l u t i o n of (11), i s part;ioularly when, as has been irn-

p l i e d before, the elements 6qually spaaed in angle, t h a t is when
t?, shorn i n Fig. 1. let u@) be a smooth curve 1
whioh passes through the ordinates erected a t the absaissaefit,
shorn i n Fig. 2. Generally u p ) and the The
funotion u(,g) is rn the envelope of the e x c i t a t i o n c o e f f i o f -
is by

'If, the result is

(13) is s u b s t i t u t e d i n t o (U)

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 This becomes (note t h a t 7=2n/Tl

L e t the sumation t be a b b r e v i a t e d 5 this q u a n t i t y i s the

sum of T complex numbers of unit magnitudespaoed Im-n] Zn/T apart
in angle, This sum is clearly z e r o when [m-n'l i s n o t equal t o qT
(q an i n t e g e r ) \%.en, however, m-n = q T (q an i n t e g e r ) , a l l T of the
nuMberys are equal unity and t h e sum i s T. Thfa m a y be expressed
mathematioally a8

The f i n a l expression for A, becomes

f a r nothing has been said about the v a l u e of' E, but, since (37)
inoludes matrlx of N equations which it is desired solve, it
f o l l o w s that the number of t h e unknown ,b should a l s o be N o It w i l l
soon be shown that; no matter how rrany more ,b a m p o s t u l a t e d , t h e
number of l i n e a r l y i n d e p e n d e n t e q u a t i o n s oannot exaeed T, the number
of For sirzlplicity, then, la s h a l l be a r b i t r a r i l y taken
t o ( N - l ) / 2 and the f u s t f f i c a t i o n w L l l become e v i d e n t as
developmentcontinues.
If T is equal t o o r g r e a t e r than W, the s o l u t i o n i s e x t r e m l y
sinple, For example, suppose M 5 T 6. Then theequations
represented by (17) may be writGen follows:

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 -2
-1
0

1
2

The equatlons seen be divided into independent groups of N,

each separated by a gap of T N. The values of the bm may be fuund
from the central graup and simply

If T N the groups of equations aontigucrus and t b r e i s

istill no d i f f i c u l t y , but if T 4 N the groups overlap as i n the f o l -
lowing example where N 5 and T

-3

-1
0

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
 Of the f i v e e q u a t i o n s i n the c e n t r a l group it i s t h a t the
f i r s t and l a s t n o t l i n e a r l y i n d e p e n d e n t and t h a t A2 and A-2 can-
not be Independentlyapecif'led, This s i t u a t i o n may be u t f l i z e d t o
advantage,however, in oertain for example those in which
symmetry e x i s t s . T b s , if A-dTG-2, it is only necessary
t o makePo equal z e r o and a s o l u t i o n is possible. The three cen-
t r a l c o e f f i c i e n t s would be found the usual (by 1 9 ) and the
b-2 b2 have t o be such that t h e i r sum i s e q u a l to AdTG,;
it would be reasonable t o make them equal to eaoh other and then

If T (I?-1)the overlap is greater than one and a p r a c t i c a l solu-

tion is probablyimpossible, The dependentequations are not those
which e q u a l l y removed from the uenter of t h e c e n t r a l group, b u t
rather those whose o r d e r s d l f f e r b y T; heme symmetry i s of' no a v a i l .
The coaclusllon is t h a t f o r t h e synthesis of a far zone p a t t e r n o f
which t h e N c e n t r a l F o u r i e r c o e f f i c i e n t s are specified, a c i r c u l a r l y
disposed array of at least N elements i s g e n e r a l l yr e q u i r e d , IT
b o t h t h e pattern of the individual element a n d t h e p a t t e r n t o 3e
synthesized are symmtPical, M 1 elements may be and when
this is t h e r e must be element on the positive X (the
axis of p a t t e r n symmetry). A number of e l e n e n t s less than N 1
m a y n o t be Used,
IV. Error Term i n the Far Zone P a t t e r n
It has been seen t h a t (17) r e p r e s e n t s a n i n f i n i t e s e t of equa-
tions t h a t those In t h ec e n t r a l group, (&1)/2 g n g (N-3)/2,
om be s a t i s f i e d such that t h e A, with N predetermined coef-
f i c i e n t s , The An outside t h l s c e n t r a l i n t e r v a lc a n n o t be indepen-

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
d e n t l g s p e c l f i e d , andtherefore c o n s t 2 t u t e e r r o r term. This is
not c e s s a r i l y s e r i o u s , however, the become vanLsh-
in@;ly small. a f t e r a o e r t a i n order, nm, i a exoeedsd. If the antenna
d e s i g n e r takes oar8 that the f i r s t e r r o r t e r m f a l l outside t h e
range -nm n nm; he w i l l generally b e q u i t e This is done
by s a g a u i o u s l y choosing t h e r a d i u s of t h e c j r c l e or a y l i n d e r .
Additional. of p a t t e r n a y n t h e a i s i s obtained if T, the
number of e l e m n t s , i s made g r e a t e r than N, s i n o e the r e s u l t is a
gap betweensuocessive groups of a o e f f i c i e n t s . The designer can I
c a p i t a l i z e upon t h i s gap as a means of i n o r e a s i n g the order, and
t h e r e f o r e deoreasing the magnitude,of ths first error terms. T h i s
aonfirms 10giGally a conalusion that is obvious from i n t u i t i o n ,
namely t h a t the s e a t e r t h e number of elementsused, the more ac-
c u r a t e l y the given f a r zone p a t t e r n om be reproduced.7 T b limit
i n this direotlon be an i n f i n i t e number of infinitesimal e l e -
ments and the envelope, would simply be the con inu us
function which has been described by e a r l i e r authors.ir8,g When-
ever exthnded elemnfs used, however, the Gn(e,) c o e f f i c i e n t s
will be d i f f e r e n t from t h o s e f o r infinitesiml elements a d u ( p ) .
w i l l n o t be t h e sa- as the aontinuous h n c t i o n whioh would
give a far zone p a t t e r n with t h e same c e n t r a l components.

1, T.T. Taylor and J.R. Whinnery, Jour'. Appl, Phys., v01. 22,
po 19; 1951.
2. R.F. Harrington W.R, Le Page, PTou. I.R.E., vol. p.
1952
3. A similar expression may be f w d in (6) and of W.W. Hansen
and J.R. Woodyard, Proc. I.R.E., 26, p. 333; 1938;
P a s , Carter, PToc. I.R.E.3 vola 31, 671; 1943.
I

In follows, N will always be an oddnumber. Cases i n whiuh

N is a p p a r e n t l y an even number occur but reconcrfied t o the
above statement by r e g a r d i n g one or mre of the coefficients
existing but aa having z e r o value. For example, a series of
fuur c o e f f i c i e n t s d g h t be found (as i n linear array t h e o r y )
which gives the desired p a t t e r n , that is,the magnitude
of t h e corresponding f u n c t i o n of t h e complex evalu-
a t e d upon the unit c l r c l e , is the power p a t t e r n requLred. I n
o r d e r t o achieve t h i s p a t t e r n in a c i r o u l a r arrayi i t be
add a f i f t h c o e f f i c i e n t whose i s zero, then
number the o o e f f i c l e n t s f r o m -2 to 2, m n g the third o o e f f i o i -
ent the c e n t r a l one. The r e s u l t i n g power paktern be the
one intended and the p h a s e p a t t e r n w i l l fulfill the necessary
physZoal c o n d i t i o n of r e t u r n i n g t o the sans value each tfme

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.
i n c r e a s e s through radians since the corresponding f u n c t i o n
of the oomplex variable wlll oontain only integral powers of
t h e unkrrowi~,

W.R. Le Page, Roys, and Seely, Proo, I..R.E., 38,

p o 1069; 1950.

E.C. Jordaa, “Antenna Systems f o r Radio D i r e c t i o n Finding”

(Paper presented at URSI-IRE m e t i n g ) A p r i l 17, 1951, National
m e a u of Standarda, Washington, DOGO

Location of elements in a
circularly disposed array,

I-
Fig,
lfd Developed diagram of a circularly
1Al
disposed array sharing. excitation
2n coefficients and t h e i r envelope.

261

Authorized licensd use limted to: IE Xplore. Downlade on May 10,2 at 19:02 UTC from IE Xplore. Restricon aply.