Design of an S/X dual-band dual-polarised microstrip antenna array for SAR applications X. Qu, S.S. Zhong, Y.M.

Zhang and W. Wang Abstract: A novel design of dual-band dual-polarised microstrip antenna arrays for synthetic aperture radar applications with a frequency ratio of about 1:3 is presented. Stacked microstrip dipoles and square patches are used as the radiating elements at

S-and X-bands, respectively. The microstrip dipoles are proximately coupled and the square patches are probe-fed. Experimental data show good agreement between simulated and measured results. The measured impedance bandwidth (VSWR . 2) the prototype array reaches 8.9% and 17% for S-and X-bands, respectively, and the measured isolation between polarisations for both bands are better than 220 dB. The measured

crosspolarisation level is 226 dB for the S-band and 231 dB for the X-band. The work verifies the practicability of the dual-band dual-polarised microstrip antenna array design, using the combination of microstrip dipoles and patches, and good bandwidth and isolation performance of the prototype array has been achieved. Introduction The development of modern synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) systems

requires advanced antennas operating at multiband with multipolarisation. The Seasat SAR in 1978, the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-A (SIR-A) in 1981 and SIR-B in 1984 were all L-band systems with horizontal polarisation transmit and receive. The SIR-C/X-SAR system, developed by the United States and Germany, was the first multiband spaceborne imaging system operating at L-, C-and X-band [1, 2]. The SIR-C

antenna had a capability of four simultaneous transmit/receive polarisations (HH, HV, VV, VH). However, the L-band microstrip array, the C-band microstrip array and the X-band slotted waveguide array of the SIR-C/X-SAR system did not share a common aperture, resulting in the total weight of the antenna structure more than 3300 kg. To minimise the volume and weight of

SAR antennas, some shared-aperture dual-band dual-polarised (DBDP) microstrip antenna arrays have been proposed in the last decade [3 6].In [3], interlaced C-(printed patch) and X( printed slot) bands elements were used to form a shared-aperture antenna array. Perforated lower-band patches and square higher-band patches were selected to compose an L-and C-bands array in [4] and an L-and X-bands array with a

fixed beam in [5]. Perforated L-band cross patches and C-band square patches composed a series-fed DBDP array in [6]. All these arrays have approximately even frequency ratios, including 1:2, 1:4 and 1:8. In this paper, a novel DBDP microstrip antenna array is proposed, which operates at S-and X-bands with a frequency # The Institution of Engineering and Technology

2007 doi:10.1049/iet-map:20060232 Paper first received 9th September and in revised form 25th November 2006 X. Qu and S.S. Zhong are with the School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, People s Republic of China Y.M. Zhang and W. Wang are with the East China Research Institution of Electronic Engineering, Hefei 230031, People s Republic of China E-mail:

xinanseanqu@hotmail.com ratio of about 1:3. As the microstrip dipoles are used at S-band and are located at the space between the X-band square patches, their lengths can be adjusted within a relatively larger range, resuiting in a flexible frequency ratio. The configuration of the DBDP antenna array is presented in the following Section. 2 Antenna structure

According to the design specifications of the DBDP array, the centre frequency of the S-band array is 3.05 GHz and the centre frequency of the X-band array is 9.6 GHz. Perforated patches similar with the one in [4] had been tried for usage for the S-band, but the combination met difficulties in forming an interlaced dual-band array with

a frequency ratio of about 1:3, especially when beam scanning, mutual coupling etc. are of concern. Microstrip dipoles and printed slots take up less space than patches and exhibit some advantages in the design of the interlaced dual-band array [3]. Thus, in this design, microstrip dipoles are employed to maximise the flexibility of the frequency ratio of the DBDP array.

The geometry of the antenna array is shown in Fig. 1. The layer parameters of the multilayered substrate configuration for the DBDP array are listed in Table 1. As the array is required to scan both in azimuth and in elevation, no power combiner is printed in any layer of it. For the measurement and test, an

external feed network will be necessary. To meet the requirements of scan range (+308) and sidelobe suppression (210 dB), the X-band element spacing is selected to be 20 mm, about 0.64 l1, and the S-band element spacing is triple that of the X-band one, 60 mm, about 0.61 l2. Here, l1 and l2 are the wavelengths, calculated in free space,

at the centre frequencies of S-band and X-band, respectively. As the bandwidth requirements of both bands are above 5%, which may be difficult to achieve using a single-layer configuration, parasitic elements are placed above the driven elements to broaden the bandwidth [7]. Every dualpolarised antenna element for both bands has two coaxial connectors beneath the substrates of the

antenna, therefore IET Microw. Antennas Propag., 2007, 1, (2), pp. 513 517 513

Fig. 1 Geometry of proposed array a Side view b Top view a dual-polarised S-band 2 . 1/X-band 7 . 4 array has sixty coaxial connectors. As sixty ordinary SMA connectors cannot be arranged within such a small area, SSMA connectors are used in this design. Stubs of 2.1 mm . 2.4 mm are used

in the X-band driven patches to make more spaces for the 2-hole flange mount SSMA coaxial connectors, as shown in Fig. 2. For the X-band, the driven square patch has a length of 8.4 and the parasitic one has a length of 9.5 mm. For the S-band, the two stacked dipoles with different polarisations are located orthogonally, forming

a cross shape in the top view, as shown in Fig. 3. The length of the driven dipoles is 39 mm and that of parasitic dipoles is 1 mm shorter. Besides the stacked configuration, symmetric tuning stubs are used to broaden the bandwidth of the narrow dipoles. As narrow microstrip dipole has narrow bandwidth but exhibits weak mutual coupling with

the adjacent X-band patches, there is a trade-off between the bandwidth of the dipole and the undesired mutual coupling. Finally, a width of 3 mm for born driven and parasitic vertical polarised dipoles and a width of 2 mm for both of the horizontal polarised ones are chosen. It should be noted that the height of the foam

layer 2 and 4 will affect the coupling between the X-band driven Table 1: Layer parameters Layer Material 1r Thickness, mm Layer 1 Rogers RT6002 2.94 0.508 Layer 2 Rohacell 51HF 1.07 2.2 Layer 3 Rogers RT6002 2.94 0.254 Layer 4 Rohacell 51HF 1.07 6.0 Layer 5 Rogers RT6002 2.94 0.254

Fig. 2

Top and side views of stacked dual-polarised X-band patch element with two flange-mount SSMA connectors and parasitic patches, the S-band feed line and driven dipoles and the S-band driven and parasitic dipoles. Thus, the height of the layer 2 and 4 should be adjusted very carefully. 3 Simulated and measured results The proposed antenna

array has been simulated and designed with Ansoft HFSS based on the finite-element method (FEM) [8]. The fabrication of the antenna array is pretty complex due to its multilayered configuration. Five microwave substrate layers and five adhesive tape layers were used during the fabrication. Fig. 4 shows a photograph of the S-band 2 . 1/X-band 7 . 4 prototype array

with external feed network. The simulated input impedance loci and the simulated and measured S-parameters of the S-band dipole element are shown in Figs. 5a and b, respectively. The loops of the impedance loci of both polarisations are close to the

Fig. 3 Top and side views of stacked dual-polarised S-band dipole element with two

flange-mount SSMA connectors IET Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 1, No. 2, April 2007

Fig. 4 Photographs of prototype antenna array

Fig. 6 Results of X-band element a Simulated input impedance loci b Simulated and measured S-parameters centre of the Smith Chart. The measured frequencies of the S-band are slightly shifted down (about 50 MHz) compared with the simulated ones. It should be noted that the

discrepancy is mainly caused by the existence of the adhesive layers, although the adhesive layers were included in the simulations. As the character of adhesive layers at the S-band is unknown and the thickness cannot be controlled very well, the adhesive layers may be the main uncontrollable factors in this multilayered structure. The measured bandwidth of VSWR . 2 is

8.9% and the isolation between polarisations is 25 dB within the operating band. For the X-band element, the simulated input impedance loci and the simulated and measured S-parameters are show in Figs. 6a and b, respectively. The measured bandwidth of VSWR . 2 reaches 17.6%, from 9.07 to 10.82 GHz. As the X-band patch antenna is probe-fed, the

measured isolation between polarisations is 20 dB, lower than the one of the aperture-coupled dual-polarised patch antennas introduced in [9]. The crosspolarisation suppression technique of excitement with 08/1808 phases is used in both S-and X-band arrays [10]. The radiation patterns of fixed beam for the prototype array have been measured in an anechoic chamber. Fig. 5 Results of

S-band element a Simulated input impedance loci b Simulated and measured S-parameters IET Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 1, No. 2, April 2007

Fig. 7 Measured radiation patterns of S-band 2 . 1 array a Horizontal polarisation b Vertical polarisation The measured copolar and crosspolar patterns of the horizontal and vertical polarized S-band array, at the centre frequency of S-band, are plotted in Figs. 7a and b, respectively. The crosspolarisation levels are 226dB in both planes. The measured

data show that the orthogonal stacked microstrip dipoles have good crosspolarisation performance. For the X-band array, the radiation patterns of the two polarisations at the centre frequency of X-band are plotted in Figs. 8a and b, respectively. In both planes, the crosspolarisation levels are 231 dB and the sidelobe levels are 210 dB. The patterns also verify that the existence

of the S-band dipoles has title influence on the radiation of the of the X-band array. Conclusion The design of a novel S/X DBDP microstrip antenna array is proposed. By using a combination of the microstrip dipoles and square patches, an interlaced DBDP array with a frequency ratio of about 1:3 has been developed. The configuration

of the multilayered array has been introduced. The simulated and measured S-parameters, as well as the measured radiation patterns, for both bands, have been presented. Good agreement between simulated and measured results has been achieved for the complex structure with five substrate layers and five adhesive-tape layers, except for some small shifts in the return loss of the S-band array.

The overall performance of the array is Fig. 8 Measured radiation patterns of X-band 7 . 4 array a Horizontal polarisation b Vertical polarisation stable and encouraging. The experimental results have verified the practicability of the DBDP antenna array with a flexible frequency ratio, which will be an attractive candidate for future SAR systems.

5 Acknowledgments This work has been supported by the Foundation of Doctoral Programs, Ministry of Education of People s Republic of China, under grant 20050280016. The authors would like to think Dr. Xian-Ling Liang of Shanghai University and Xiaopeng Lu, Ang Li and Zujian Feng of the East China Research Institute of Electronic Engineering (ECRIEE), for their

inspiring discussion on DBDP antennas and assistance in the measurement of the prototype array. The authors would also like to thank Yan Su, Si Wei and Xun Zhou of ECRIEE, for their help in the fabrication of the prototype antenna array. 6 References 1 Jordan, R.L., Huneycutt, B.L., and Werner, M.: The SIR-C/X-SAR synthetic

aperture radar system , Proc. IEEE, 1991, 79, pp. 827 837 2 http://www.eoportal.org, accessed May 2006 3 Pokuls, R., Uher, J., and Pozar, D.M.: Dual-frequency and dual-polarization microstrip antennas for SAR application , IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., 1998, 46, pp. 1289 1296 IET Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 1, No. 2, April 2007

4 Shafai, L.L., Chamma, W.A., Barakat, M., Strickland, P.C., and 7 Croq, F., and Pozar, D.M.: Millimeter-wave design of wide-band Seguin, G.: Dual-band dual-polarized perforated microstrip aperture-coupled stacked mictostrip antennas , IEEE Trans. antennas for SAR applications , IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Antennas Propag., 1991, 39, pp. 1770 1776 2000, 48, pp. 58 66 8 Ansoft HFSS v. 8.0, Ansoft Corp., Pittsburg, PA,

USA, 2001 5 Pozar, D.M., and Targonski, S.D.: A shared-aperture dual-band 9 Zhong, S.-S., Liang, X.-L., and Wang, W.: Dual-polarised dual-polarized microstrip array , IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., slot-coupled microstrip antenna with very high isolation , 2001, 49, pp. 150 157 J. Shanghai Univ. (English Edn.), 2005, 9, (4), pp. 336 338 6 Vallecchi, A., Gentili, G.B., and Calamia, M.: Dual-band dual 10 Woelders,

W., and Granholm, J.: Cross-polarization and sidelobe polarization microstrip antenna . IEEE Antennas Propag. Soc. Int. suppression in dual linear polarization anrenna arrays , IEEE Trans. Symp., 2003, vol. 4, pp. 134 137 Antennas Propag., 1997, 45, pp. 1727 1740 IET Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 1, No. 2, April 2007