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degrades at larger antenna scan angles. Fig. 3(a) clearly indicates that Enhanced Low-Angle GPS Coverage Using Solid and
power transmission efficiency for the hy-VTR design is superior to that Annular Microstrip Antennas on Folded and
of both the extreme hy-CTR design cases. Drooped Ground Planes
The depolarization characteristics of the hy-VTR and hy-CTR de-
signs are shown in Fig. 3(b). In the case of hy-VTR design, the X-pol Hussain M. Al-Rizzo, Ken G. Clark, Jim M. Tranquilla,
power transmission is well below 030 dB throughout the antenna scan Rami A. Adada, Taha A. Elwi, and Daniel Rucker
range and it is superior to the hy-CTR designs. For the hy-CTR1 de-
sign, X-pol power transmission is much higher, especially around the
nose-cone region, which is undesirable for airborne radar systems. Fur-
thermore, the hy-VTR design proposed here has far superior blending Abstract—Folded and drooped microstrip antennas are investigated in
this communication for their potential applications in GPS marine naviga-
characteristics for X-pol than those reported in [1]. tion. Numerical and experimental results are reported to identify the ef-
The elevation BSE characteristics are shown in Fig. 3(c). It is readily fects of the percentage of the patch extending around to the folded side,
inferred that the BSE for the hy-VTR design is again, better than that position, and angle of the bend on the performance of the proposed an-
of hy-CTR designs. The BSE for the hy-CTR1 design shows a sharp tennas in comparison to the conventional flat counterparts. The folded an-
tennas provide marginally improved 3-dB beam width and excellent phase
variation around the nose-cone sector of the radome, which is not de- center stability without degrading the bore-sight gain. A novel drooped
sirable. Further, the hy-VTR design, though not optimized for the BSE, square annular element operating in the TM mode is proposed and vali-
has resulted in acceptable BSE performance as well. dated both numerically and experimentally. The drooped annular antenna
In order to analyze the frequency response of the hy-VTR, the EM is shown to have substantially improved above-horizon coverage to suit ap-
performance parameters are computed at the end-frequencies of the plications requiring acquisition of satellites from horizon to horizon with
a pattern ripple less than 2 dB over the upper hemisphere and with an
given radar antenna [Fig. 4(a)–(c)]. It is observed that the deterioration impedance bandwidth of 2%. The polarization rejection is marginally de-
of power transmission is more at 9.8 GHz than that at 9.0 GHz in the graded at bore-sight. At the horizon, the cross component becomes domi-
critical nose-cone sector [Fig. 4(a)]. Regarding the cross-pol transmis- nant by 1.5 dB.
sion characteristics, it is high at 9.0 GHz as compared to that at 9.8 GHz Index Terms—Drooped microstrip antenna, GPS, low-elevation pattern
in the nose-cone sector [Fig. 4(b)]. Even though the boresight error at coverage, marine navigation, pyramidal ground plane, TM square an-
9.8 GHz shows a sharp increase in the nose-cone sector as compared nular patch.
to that at 9.0 GHz [Fig. 4(c)], it is well within the acceptable limits.
I. INTRODUCTION
V. CONCLUSION
It is well known that a conventional microstrip antenna, typically
The EM performance parameters are evaluated for a novel hy-VTR mounted on a flat ground plane, suffers a remarkable decrease in gain
design based on 3-D ray-tracing with aperture integration method. The toward low-elevation angles (10 to 30 above the horizon). There-
hy-VTR design based on optimized power reflection offers superior fore, interest exists for improving this inherent coverage performance
EM characteristics due to the minimization of internal reflections. The to allow for early signal acquisition from rising satellites, to avoid loss
EM analysis for the present work is more accurate than the conven- of contact and cycle slips, and to maintain signal continuity and proper
tional approach due to the incorporation of antenna and radome as a system’s dilution of precision. The research reported in this communi-
system, and the finite-dimensional nature of the antenna. A compara- cation focuses on real-time dynamic GPS marine applications. The de-
tive study of radome performance parameters establishes the superior sign goal is to compensate for the motion (pitch and roll) by extending
electromagnetic performance of the hy-VTR design over the conven- coverage over a wide range of elevation angles including 20 below the
tional constant thickness designs. antenna’s horizon plane [1].
Some work has been reported on improving the hemispherical cov-
erage of a crossed dipole antenna using a cylindrical ground plane with
REFERENCES a flat elevated center surrounded by sloping sides [2]–[4]. The struc-
ture was found to be successful in improving the radiation pattern at
[1] R. U. Nair and R. M. Jha, “Novel design for a monolithic hybrid vari- low-elevation angles. Additional elements were also examined such as
able thickness radome (hy-VTR),” in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propag.
monofilar and quadrifilar helices [5], although none achieved the same
Soc. Int. Symp., 2004, pp. 878–881.
[2] R. U. Nair and R. M. Jha, “Novel A-sandwich radome design for air- degree of pattern modification as the crossed dipoles. This is attributed
borne applications,” Elect. Lett., vol. 43, pp. 787–789, Jul. 2007.
[3] R. H. J. Cary, “Radomes,” in The Handbook of Antenna Design.
Manuscript received July 28, 2008; revised March 19, 2009. First published
London, U.K.: Peter Peregrinus, 1983.
September 11, 2009; current version published November 04, 2009. This work
[4] D. J. Kozakoff, Analysis of Radome-Enclosed Antennas. Norwood, was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR under
MA: Artech House, 1997. Grant EPS-0701890.
[5] K. Siwiak, T. B. Dowling, and L. R. Lewis, “Boresight errors induced H. M. Al-Rizzo is with the Systems Engineering Department, Donaghey Col-
by missile radomes,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. AP-27, pp. lege of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Arkansas at
832–841, Nov. 1979. Little Rock, Little Rock, AR 72204-1099 USA (e-mail: [email protected]).
R. A. Adada, T. A. Elwi, and D. Rucker are with the Applied Science De-
partment, Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology, Uni-
versity of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR 72204-1099 USA (e-mail:
[email protected]).
K. G. Clark and J. M. Tranquilla are with EMR Microwave Technology Cor-
poration, Fredericton NB E3X 1N2, Canada.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are avail-
able online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2009.2032104
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009 3669
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3670 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009
Fig. 3. Simulated (at 1.575 GHz) and measured elevation patterns for the an-
tennas shown in Fig. 1(a) (measured at 1.583 GHz), and Fig. 1(b) (measured at
1.5685 GHz).
Fig. 2. Measured and simulated S for the antennas showed in Fig. 1(a) and
(b).
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009 3671
TABLE I
RESULTS FOR THE FOLDED MICROSTRIP ANTENNA, " = 2:2 AND 4:2
Fig. 5. Geometry of the drooped annular structure and range of parameter vari-
ations studied.
limited ability to alter the radiation pattern of the flat microstrip for the
wide range of parameters examined. In this section, additional struc-
tures are considered based on the use of multiple array elements.
Because the individual microstrip element radiates normal to the
ground plane, this suggests that a discrete element on each drooped face Fig. 6. Elevation patterns of the drooped annular antenna with fixed bend angle
could provide the desired low-angle coverage by varying the amplitude (top) and fixed bend position (bottom).
and phase of the excitation on each element. However, this requires a
complex feeding network to excite the elements with the proper ampli-
tude and phase. An alternative solution is to connect the discrete ele- our design, a prototype was constructed and tested. The prototype con-
ments in a manner that would allow them to be driven as a single unit. sists of a square annular element, 18.6 cm in side length, with a 6.6 cm
Once this is accomplished, the structure emerges as that of a square an- square inner hole, printed on a 26 cm 2 26 cm grounded substrate. The
nular patch placed on the drooped ground plane with the open section substrate is 4 mm in thickness with a relative permittivity of "r = 2:2.
coincident with the flat area on the top of the ground plane, as seen in The drooped antenna is then formed by bending the flat element by
Fig. 5. 60 beginning at the edge of the flat opening. The dimensions of the
A higher order TM30 mode is excited in order to create a discrete drooped annular element are chosen in the CPFDTD model to ensure
element resonating in the fundamental TM10 mode on each face of the that the TM30 mode is resonating at a central frequency of 1.575 GHz.
drooped plane. This causes opposing arms to oscillate with two radi- The simulated and measured elevation patterns shown in Fig. 7 support
ating edges, the inner and outer, in a manner similar to the single el- the model prediction of above horizon coverage with minimum ripples.
ement in the TM10 mode. The resulting structure allows the radiating The bandwidth for a 2:1 standing wave ratio was found to be 2%.
edges to produce the interference required to introduce nulls into the Further testing revealed that, along with the pattern improvement,
upper hemispherical pattern. To this end, the design objective is to ma- other performance measures have been degraded with the higher mode
nipulate the drooped edges to control these nulls and create a pattern operation. First, the polarization rejection near the horizon is reduced
with minimal ripples. to the point where the cross component becomes dominant by 1.5 dB.
The radiation patterns were examined as a function of the width of Second, the measured phase pattern as shown in Fig. 7 displays large
the open region and the bend angle. The most promising case predicted variations in the elevation cut. However, the position of the phase
by the model was then tested experimentally. A selection of the ele- center has moved by 6.12 cm (116 at 1.5703 GHz), down from the
vation patterns is displayed in Fig. 6 for a 4 mm-thick substrate with top of the ground plane where the calculated and measured patterns
"r = 2:2. are referenced.
Fig. 6 shows that the structure is capable of producing a wide range
of radiation patterns in the upper hemisphere. The final design, which IV. CONCLUSION
reduces the pattern ripple to about 2 dB above the horizon, is obtained In this communication, folded and drooped microstrip antennas have
by choosing a 6 cm open center, coupled with a 60 bend. To validate been investigated for potential applications in GPS marine navigation,
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3672 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 57, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2009
Fig. 7. Amplitude and phase of the elevation patterns for the drooped annular
antenna. The measured patterns are shown at the measured resonant frequency
of 1.5703 GHz and the simulated patterns at 1.575 GHz.
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