Open AccessFast and low‐cost beam steering using an agile mechanical feed system for exciting circular arrays
Author(s) -
Mirkamali Ali,
Deban Ramin,
Siaka Francis,
Laurin JeanJacques
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
iet microwaves, antennas and propagation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.555
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1751-8733
pISSN - 1751-8725
DOI - 10.1049/iet-map.2015.0429
Subject(s) - agile software development , beam steering , beam (structure) , engineering , computer science , optics , systems engineering , physics , software engineering
A novel feed system for circular arrays enabling beam steering over 360° in the azimuth plane with a stable scanned beam is proposed. It consists of rotating and fixed parts. The rotating part is a two‐dimensional offset fed parabolic reflector which is inside a circular parallel plate waveguide. The power coming from the rotating part is coupled with the elements of the circular array through a fixed coupling structure. The rotating part is light and its moment of inertia is significantly less than the conventional rotating antenna systems for beam scanning. Therefore, the beam can be steered much faster than the current rotating antenna systems. The details of the structure including the rotating and the fixed parts are presented and a design procedure for the fixed coupling section is suggested. The performance of the feed system is investigated by simulations and measurements. It is shown that the simulations and experimental results are in good agreement.