Full-wave Analysis Of Finite Microstrip Antenna Arrays And Its Applications

The primary intention of this thesis is to achieve the enough accuracy in the analysis and design of finite microstrip antenna arrays at the less expense of computational efforts. Three methods for this purpose are examined in this thesis: element (or module)-loaded based full wave analysis, element-by-element based full wave analysis and integrated full wave analysis.This thesis firstly describes the design methodology of the normal microstrip antenna arrays. In these cases, the system requirements are not very critical. As a result, the module-loaded based full wave analysis is applied, where the module itself is accurately analyzed and the mutual coupling between the modules is ignored for high efficiency. Several design examples are presented to show how this design procedure is implemented. The extremely high yield of the compact microtrip antenna array used for reconnaissance radar for infantry confirms the success of the design.For the large phased arrays or ultra low side lobe arrays, high analyzing accuracy is demanded. To completely involve the mutual coupling effect in finite array environment as well as to maintain the relatively high efficiency, the element-by-element based full wave analyzing method is proposed. Simulation results show that the performances of finite microstrip antenna arrays can be predicted successfully. The proposed method is further validated through being applied in adaptive nulling to reduce the mutual coupling effects of a linear dipole array. Substantial improvements in terms of the depths and the accuracy of the nulls can be obtained.Finally, a novel feeding scheme of local oscillator based on the near-field coupling is proposed. This scheme is composed of the feeding array with open-circuit terminations as antenna elements for near-field coupling. Due to the small size of the array, the integrated full wave analysis is applied. The simulation and experimental results both validated the feasibility of this new feeding scheme.