1953

PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E.

235

CONCLUSION The reason this system has much higher stability than conventional time-delay circuits is obvious. In the above description and the block diagram of Fig. 1 the signal pulse travels back and forth in lines A and B in which the attenuation is compensated for by the distributed amplifier T2, T3 and T4, and finally goes out through the gate circuit. Thus the time delay is accomplished exclusively by linear bilateral elements, which includes lines A and B, inductances and capacitances at the grids, and plates of the distributed amplifier. Accordingly, the output pulse is the same one that has been fed into the system-unlike most other electronic delay systems of which the output pulse is a new pulse generated in the system. Any variation in cutoff characteristics of electron tubes, noise, hum, temperature, and change in supply voltages, which cause a major portion of time jitter in conventional electron-tube timedelay circuits, may produce time jitter only in the gate pulse and the turn-off pulse but cannot alter the number of reflections in lines A and B. Furthermore, by maintaining both the incident and reflected pulses in lines A and B at a high level, above 50 volts, and by keeping the

characteristic impedance of both lines A and B below 1,000 ohms, noise, hum, or echoes due to imperfected matching can be eliminated when a high negative bias is applied to the tubes of the distributed amplifier. There are two outstanding limitations of this system in its present form: (1) The signal pulse cannot have its duration longer than the time delay of one step of the system; (2) the time between any two adjacent input pulses is required to be longer or at least equal to the total time delay of the system plus its recovery time. These two limitations introduce no inconvenience for many applications such as sweep delay in oscillographs, pulse delay in radar ranging, or propagation studies, although objections may arise in some other applicaWhile there is much remaining to be done in the way of improving and refining the circuits involved, it has been found that the method described in this paper is one of the most promising approaches for obtaining variable time delay of very high stability for unidirectional pulses. Particularly, the system has proved to be very useful for the application of sweep trigger delay in high-speed oscillographs.
tions.

Factors

Affiecting

the Performance of Linear Arrays *

L. L. BAILINt AND M. J. EHRLICHt, SENIOR MEMBER

Summarg-The performance of a linear array, which has been deterioration of the beamwidth and side-lobe level designed for low side-lobe level, is markedly affected by small varia- arising from the variations in the excitation of each tions in element excitation, introduced primarily, by the inaccuracies element. These variations are due primarily to the inthat are inherent in the manufacture of the array. Thus, the phase accuracies inherent in the manufacturing processes and amplitude of each element contain a slight randomness and the array performance must be determined by the application of statisti- used to produce the array. The first problem has been cal methods. This method of analysis has been formulated for the discussed in great detail by many authors (see, for generalized symmetric linear array and computed for the special example, Silver2), and it will be the purpose of this cases of three 24-element linear-shunt slot arrays uSig a Dolph- paper to analyze the;second problem. The analysis is Tchebyscheff current distribution. The statistics give the probability
that the side-lobe level will exceed an arbitrary comparison value as a function of the magnitude of arbitrary manufacturing tolerances. The results indicate that the lower the design value of the sidelobe level the greater the perturbation to be expected for the allowed tolerance. Thus, an additional restriction is imposed upon array design which forces the designer either to require very small tolerances in manufacture or to overdesign the array in order to compensate for the perturbations introduced by the manufacturing processes.

I. INTRODUCTION A PRIMARY PROBLEM is the design of antenna arrays is the satisfaction of the requirements of side-lobe level and beamwidth. An additional major consideration which has only recently received an analytical treatment' is the problem of the

*Decimal classification: R125.1XR325.11. Original manuscript received by the Institute, November 27, 1951; revised manuscript received September 26, 1952. t Research and Development Laboratories, Hughes Aircraft Co., Culver City, Calif. I J. Ruze, Presented at IRE Meeting, New York, N. Y.; January, 1951.

formulated in general for a symmetrically excited broadside array and then, as a specific example, is applied to a linear shunt-slot array which uses a Dolph-Tchebyscheff3 distribution for the element excitations. This distribution optimizes the relationship between beamwidth and side-lobe level. The method of analysis is general and may be applied to any linear array of radiators with arbitrary excitation, if the total mutual coupling between individual radiators may be neglected and no correlation exists between the inaccuracies of any two sources. In fact, the statistical method shown here may be applied to any radiative device whose total effect is obtained by summing the effects from a large number of smaller radiators. If the amplitude and phase of the excitation from each radiator are independent functions of the 2 S. Silver, "Microwave Antenna Theory and Design," chap. 9, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, N. Y.; 1949. 8 C. Dolph, "A current distribution for broadside arrays which
optimizes the relationship between beam width and side-lobe level," PRoc. I.R.E., vol. 34, pp. 335-346; June, 1946.

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2PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E.

February

The radiating elements are spaced symmetrically about a transverse center line and are symmetrically excited as shown in Fig. 1. It will then be shown that the phase of excitation of each slot depends, to good approximation, only upon the slot spacing, d, and the slot length II. GENERAL METHOD 1, and the magnitude of the excitation of each source The general method to be used in this analysis may may be considered as a function only of x, the slot's be applied to any distribution of N independent radi- displacement from the center of the broad face of the ators. The magnitude of the instantaneous field strength guide. The desired pattern is obtained by the choice of proper values of the design parameters, d, 1, and x for at a point P from such an array can be given as
N

physical dimensions of the structure, size and spacing, then the technique developed in this paper may be modified to give useful results concerning the effect of manufacturing inaccuracies.

ENI|

Ai exp (jbi) E i=O

(1)

where Ai is the relative amplitude and bi, a function of P, is the relative phase of the contribution to the field pattern from the i-th source. However, the numerical computations for practical arrays become somewhat lengthy if the method is applied to the formulation given by (1) which involves the exponential factor. In the special case of 2n independent radiators spaced symmetrically about a center line and symmetrically Fig. I excited, as shown in Fig. 1, a great simplification can be achieved in the calculations. Then, the magnitude of the field in the direction making an angle 0 with the normal each slot. However, when the slots are cut, random errors are introduced in these parameters, and it is asto the line of sources may be expressed as follows: sumed that the resulting parameter values are normally E2n(0 distributed about a mean or design value. A; (2)
=

Z,

COS

k=il

The general method consists of two parts. First, from physical considerations, it will be shown that Ak and bk are determined by the physical dimensions and spacing of the elements. Thus, inaccuracies inherent in the manufacture of the array will produce a fluctuation of physical parameters about their design values which will be reflected in both the amplitude and phase of each radiator. It must be shown from physical considerations that, to good approximation, the individual amplitude fluctuations are independent of each other and of the phase fluctuations. Thus, Ak and b5k can be regarded as independent random variables and, from their statistical parameters, those of the absolute value of the electric field pattern can be calculated. This is the statistical portion of the method. Finally, the probability that the magnitude of the perturbed field will exceed an arbitrary reference value is derived. Thus, the general method relates the fluctuations in the array design parameters of the individual radiators to the probability that the magnitude of the field will attain or exceed a prescribed value. III. SYMMETRIC SLOT ARRAY While the analytical method is applicable to any symmetrical array, the calculations will be restricted to the special case of a symmetrical shunt-slot array on the broad face of a rectangular waveguide. This array is to be realized physically as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

The symmetrical formulation given by (2) does not imply that the same errors are introduced into the parameters of two radiators equally spaced about the center of the array. A different distribution of values may be assigned to each parameter, and only for convenience in the final computation will this distribution assume to be the same for each element in the array.
IV. ROLE OF PHYSICAL PARAMETERS Before proceeding to the treatment of the particular problem chosen to illustrate the use of the method developed, it is desirable to discuss in detail the physical basis for various assumptions made in this paper. It must be emphasized that the shunt-slot arrays discussed in this paper are composed of collinear resonant

1953

Bcailin and Ehrlich: Factors Affecting the Performance of Linear Arrays from (3) and (4) as
6
9$d + 4i-

slots with approximately a half-guide-wavelength interslot spacing. It has been shown by Watson4 that the resonant length of the slot at a fixed frequency is a slowly varying function of the transverse displacement. Accordingly, the perturbation in the impedance arising from the change in resonant length produced by a slight randomness of the transverse displacement about its mean may be neglected since it is second order compared to the other small impedance changes. It is readily seen from the transmission-line equations that for an element spacing which is very nearly half-guide wavelength, the input impedance is unaffected, to second order, by small variations in interelement spacing. The impedance then seen looking into the array is essentially real and is approximately equal to the sum of the slot conductances and the load conductance and is relatively insensitive to the random variations of the individual slot impedances. In addition, the randomness in slot length produces only a small change in impedance.5 Consequently, the effects of impedance changes may be neglected in this analysis. The change in phase produced by the randomness in transverse displacement may be neglected as also being second order compared to the phase change arising from deviations in slot length. The relative phase between the signals from two consecutive radiators at the field point P arises from two separate sources, the free-space path-length difference from the two radiators to the field point and the path-length difference between the radiators along the array. The latter difference is reduced by placing alternate slots on opposite sides of the waveguide center line. Thus, the total phase difference then becomes

(5) An additional factor that must now be treated is the perturbation in the amplitude of excitation of the slots. It has been shown by Stevenson6 that the conductance of shunt slot in the broad face of a rectangular wave guide is given by
=

where Co is a constant involving the guide dimensions and frequency and xi is the transverse displacement of the i-th slot. Then, if for purposes of obtaining simplicity in calculation we restrict our attention to resonant-spaced arrays in which the resonant shunt slots are spaced onehalf guide wavelength apart, the equivalent circuit may be given as in Fig. 3 and the magnitude of the equivalent slot excitation voltage is

The use of this method also requires the assumption that the total mutual coupling is negligible between the individual slot and the rest of the radiators. This assumption has been experimentally verified.7

Pd-

27rd

\ 2ird sin 0) +y -irX ,

vg

(3)

where Xo is the free-space wavelength, X, the guide wavelength, and 0 the angle measured from the direction normal to the array axis as shown in Fig. 1. The change in phase as a function of an error in slot length is now considered. It is well known that a phase change is produced in the field radiated by a slot as the slot departs from the resonant length, lo. The magnitude of the phase change has been determined experimentally6 for a wide range of frequencies and slot lengths. From this work, it can be seen that near resonance the phase change is proportional to increment in slot length, and is given:

The effects which must then be considered in the statistical portion are: (a) the variation in the amplitude of excitation due to the randomness in the transverse displacement, (b) the variation in phase due to the randomness in the longitudinal spacing, and (c) the variation in phase due to the randomness in slot length.

K(lO 1)
-

10

(4)

(4)

V. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS The statistical problem is to investigate the behavior of the far-zone field pattern, as the amplitude and phase of the individual sources vary in a random manner as a function of their parameters. The field given by (2) may now be rewritten as
iE2(O) I
=

VgW~ Gr
Gi = Co' sin2'(r),

237

a7~

(6)

Vi

Co sin

-. a

(7)

Fig. 3

The total phase of the radiation at P may be obtained

4W. H. Watson, "The Physical Principles of Waveguide TransSystems," Oxford University Press, London; 1947. 6 R. Stegen, "Design of Linear Arrays," I.R.E. West Coast Meeting; August 23, 1951.
missions and Antenna

21Z

2|

kal1

Z7,

2|

k-l

EXkYk

(8)

6 A. F. Stevenson, "Theory of slots in rectangular wave guides," Jour. App. Phys., vol. 19, pp. 24-38; January, 1948. 7 M. J. Ehrlich, C. W. Curtis, and R. G. Fawcett, aMutual Coupling between Slot Radiators," I.R.E. New York Meeting;

March, 1952.

238

PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E.

Pre-bruary
(15)

where the physical description has shown that

Xk = C' sin
C'

and

2rXk

and Yk = COS 5k;

aYX2

=(C)[1 (Cos2rx) exp (-2ox2)] -mx2,

crX
7r
=

is a

variables where the deviations at each source are in pendent of the deviations at all sources. The ml values of these parameters are the design vali Their standard deviations (from these values) are noted as gd, ai, and o-. If d and I are normally tributed, then a is normally distributed about its ml value given by the linear relationship of (5) and ha standard deviation given by
0(52
=

scripts may now be omitted since the discussion in next few paragraphs is applicable to each source.) have taken d, 1, and x to be normally distributed rand

constant and

Sk a function of dk and ik. (The s

where
a

a-

The mean and standard deviation for Z may be determined by applying (12), (13), (14), and (15) to each source. Thus,
n
mz

,
k=l

mXkmyk

(16)

and
n

Obd2 +

12,

(9)

Tz 2

k-=l

(u-X2mY,2)

+ (uyk2mXk2) +

('xk2ayy 2).

(17)

where
(27r sin
Xo

2 r\
xo

and
O,

K
10

From the function relationships described by (2) E (7), it is evident that the behavior of the cosine c sine of a random variable must be determined as ( step towards the solution of this problem. The ml m, and the standard deviation, a, of a function o random variable y is defined8 by the equations

The probability density of Z which is an essential part of this derivation can now be found by an application of the Central Limit Theorem. The theorem states, in effect, that the result of summing a sufficiently large number of products of independent random variables is normally distributed regardless of the distribution of the products themselves. Since the field at any angle 0 is given by (8), the mean and the standard deviation as well as the density function for Z must be calculated in terms of mz and az. Thus the probability density function for Zl may be written from the probability density of Z as

b(D|Iz

mz, 'Tz)
2

mnf (y )=

-oo*

f(y) (D(y)dy
mf(v)]'1?(y)dyf

(10)

and

-f (V)a
where
our

[f(y)

(11)

(18) l 2 t J2 Again applying (10) and (11), mlzl and alzI are given by 2 1 mt.iz t'---= +gexp -L- t2

\/2r o-z

z 1 ( I-mz)2]

quently,

is the probability density function of y. In present problem, b is normally distributed; conse-

r
V\
2ir

t
i-t1
eXpi

1 --x2 Idx 2

(19)

and
my =cos a exp t- 2
c2

(12)
where

a' 2 =

I orizi

O'Z

,= [ 1

+ (t) 2

(11) 2 ]

(20)

and

ay2
Similarly,

4[1 + (cos 25)

exp

(-2a62)]

my2.

(13)

mz

mx

C' (sin-)

exp

(-

(14)

8 See for example H. Cramer, "Mathematical Methods of Statistics," Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J.

A probability can now be associated with the magnitude of the field by integrating the density function between appropriate limits. Since the basic interest in this problem is to determine the effect of the statistical variations upon the side-lobe level, we would like to

1953

Bailin and Ehrlich: Factors Affecting the Performance of Linear Arrays

239

know the probability that side lobes will exceed some The standard deviation as, can be calculated from (9) arbitrary level. The probability that the field will ex- where ceed mIzI+oIzI is (27r sinG 2r

P Z I > mIzI+'zil
1

X0

_+

(26)

1 r r'lt+ exp
et'lteaI

2vJ

_x2 2 _dx
F
1

and

- yJ

Here lo, is the resonant length of the k-th slot and An evaluation of (21) at the position of the side lobes K =5r is a value determined from the slope of the shows that the probability is approximately 0.16 and experimental values given by Stegen.5 From (12), (13), that the value of the field pattern will be greater than (14), and (15) the mean and standard deviation of Yk and Xk can be computed. The mean and standard deviation of the perturbed field are now determined from (16) VI. LINEAR SHUNT-SLOT ARRAY and (17) by the indicated summation. For the actual The method is demonstrated as a practical device for calculations, the third term in (17) may be neglected as assigning a probability to the side-lobe level deteriora- being small in comparison to the sum of the other two tion by a consideration of several examples of shunt- terms. The mean and standard deviation of absolute slot arrays. The arrays to be considered have 24 radi- value of the perturbed field can be obtained from (19) ators which are excited according to a Dolph-Tcheby- and (20) and the probability that this magnitude of the scheff distribution where the side-lobe level is chosen field will exceed its mean plus one standard deviation to be 20, 30, and 40 db below the main beam with can be calculated from (21). absolute gains of approximately 17 db, 16 db, and 15 db, respectively. For simplicity in the calculation, consider a resonantspaced array where the spacing between the elements is d=X,/2 and the sum of the slot conductances is normalized to unity. Equation (8) is then given in the notation (current Ik) of Dolph3 with
d41

exP [-exp -x2 dx.

(21)

041

= -

Iot,

orL.

(27)

Xk = Ik = NoCo sin (rX

(22)

20
V

and
Yk = COS k =

ASgC
6 6% %

16%

16%

16%

16%

t6

F/2k-i\ 2rrd COS _sin 01, 2 /X0

12

30~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0

(23)
0.1 0.2

IT\11% 615 1 %
0.7

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

where No is the normalization factor obtained from

e RADIANS

0.8

0.9

L0

i.l

i.2

1.3

iA

.5

16

(No)2 =

k=1

x: k2.

(24)

Upon introducing the nominal dimensions of a standard waveguide at X-band, where a = 0.9 inch and b = 0.4 inch and an appropriate frequency so that X, = 1.4026 No, Co may be calculated from the equation given in footnote reference 6. Consequently, from (22), Xk may be obtained from the given set of normalized Dolph-Tchebyscheff excitation coefficients. The assumption is made also that the slot spacings are not measured serially and, consequently, the errors in spacing do not accumulate but are independent. If now the manufacturing inaccuracies in d, 4, and Xk are normally distributed about their mean value or desired values with
rd = O=

Fig. 4-f E2,1(O) versus 0 for a 24-element Dolph-Tchebyscheff array designed for 20-db side lobes at X-band. The symbol (F) denotes the comparison value of perturbed field IZ. The attached percentages indicate the probability that the perturbed field will be smaller (in db) than mlzl +olzl for manufacturing tolerances of 0.002 inch.

O=0.002 inch.

VII. CONCLUSION The perturbation of the radiation pattern of the array due to the inaccuracies in manufacture has been computed for a 24-element longitudinal shunt-slot array previously described. Since the general method is a statistical one, the changes to be expected in the radiation pattern are presented as a probability that the absolute magnitude of the field will be greater than a specified amount. The value arbitrarily selected was the statistical mean plus one standard deviation. This value is shown superimposed upon the unperturbed DolphTchebyscheff distribution E2n(O) j in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, where Z is used to denote the perturbed field. The prob-

240

PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E.

db
% 'r",II
II
II
11

Fe-bruary

20

E P-N M

30

6%

6%

16%

6%

16 %

% 16

6%

16

40 _ ErEXCE ARA 2 T-6

eRADIANS

Fig. 5-f (E20)

versus 0 for a 24-element Dolph-Tchebyscheff array designed for 30-db side lobes at X-banid. The symbol ( ) denotes the comparison value of perturbed field Z I. The attached percentages indicate the probability that the perturbed field will be smaller (in db) than mizj +ojzj for manufacturing tolerances
of 0.002

50

_ az

X 0.3

0.4

A 0.5

0 6 0.6 0,7 0.5 e RADIANS

N 0,9

1.0

I 1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

6 L6

inich.

ability P(O) of the perturbed field is less than the value mizj+lzl listed in Table I for 0.1 intervals in 0. The values for 6 were selected so as to reduce the amount of computation; consequently, some of the calculated points lie near the maxima of the side lobes and some near the minima in the pattern. It is evident that the maxima and minima are perturbed by the inaccuracies in manufacture, and it can be shown that the beamwidth is similarly affected. The radiation patterns were measured for a 20-db, 30-db, and a 40-db 24-element X-band array which had been manufactured with a 0.002 inch tolerance.9 The highest side lobes measured were: (a) 19 db for the 20-db array, (b) 27 db for the 30-db array, and (c) 32 db for the 40-db array. These values are in agreement with the data near any of the peaks of Figs. 4, 5, and 6 within the experimental error.
9 The arrays were designed, constructed, and measured under the supervision of R. Stegen, Hughes Aircraft Company.

Fig. 6-1 Ef,0(0) versus for a 24-element Dolph-Tschebyscheff array designed for 40-db lobes at X-band. The symbol ( *) denotes the comparison value of perturbed field IZI. The attached percentages indicate the probability that the perturbed field will be smaller (in db) than mlzl +cjrz for manufacturing tolerances of 0.002 inch.

The inaccuracies of the design parameters in each instance were assumed to be normally distributed about the desired value. Studies of error distribution have shown this assumption to be valid for production manufacture processes, although any reasonable error distribution could have been used in our statistical discus-

It can be seen from Figs. 4, 5, and 6 that the lower the design value of the side lobe the greater the perturbation to be expected for the allowed tolerance. Thus, an additional restriction is now imposed upon array design as a consequence of these results. In order to obtain the desired side-lobe level, two courses are open to the designer: The first is to require very small tolerances in manufacture. Such a procedure is prohibitive in cost, especially if a large number of arrays are to be made. The second is to overdesign the array by designing for an N-db side-lobe level if an M-db level is required,
where N> M. The amount of overdesign, i.e.,

sion.

N-MI}

TABLE I

20 db
0

30 db

40 db

E2,~(6) (db)
0 24.7 20.2 25.3 22.4 24.7 20.4 28.9 33.2 27.1 27.8 29.9 20.2 32.1 20.2 21.0 21.4

mizi +oIzI

(db)

P(O)
16% 16% 16% 16% 16% 16% 16% 16% 17% 16% 16% 16% 16% 17% 16% 16% 16%

E2,,(O)
(db)
0 30.2 30.1 37.0 31.4 36.1 30.3 38.6 43.7 36.3 32.9 41.4 30.5 39.0 30.0 32.1 32.1

miz, +oIlzl
(db)
-0.10 26.9 26.9 32.2 27.7 30.6
26.8 31.8 32.0 30.7 28.7 32.5 27.1 31.8 26.8 28.2 28.2

P(O)
16% 16% 16% 17% 16% 17% 16% 17% 16% 17% 17% 16% 16% 1 7% 16%

E2.(O) (db)
33.1 42.7 91.7 40.4 48.6 40.6 48.8 56.1 45.0 43.6 52.6 41.3 46.1 40.0 44.9 43.6

mizi +oizi

(db)

P(G)
16% 16% 16% 16% 16% 16%' 16%, 16% 16%, 16% 16% 16% 16% 16%
16% 17%

ir/2

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0. 7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

-0.097 22.8 19.1 23.3 21.0 22.9 19.2 26.0 28.6 24.7 25.2 26.7 19.1 28.2 19.1 19.8 20.1

17% 17%

-0.11 28.8 32.5 33.4 32.1 33.2 32.0 33.2 32.2 32.9 32.6 33.2 32.0 32.9 31.8 32.7 32.5

1607,

1953

PROCEEDINGS OF THE I.R.E.

241

can be governed by the results given in this paper or similarly computed. However, if the length of the array is fixed, the overdesign results in reduced aperture efficiency. Consequently, the requirements of low sidelobe level must be examined carefully since, when the array dimensions are fixed, they will only be satisfied by expensive manufacturing procedures or by reduced aperture efficiency.

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors wish to thank Professor Samuel Silver of the University of California, Dr. Robert Wehner, Dr. Leo A. Aroian, Dr. Nicholas A. Begovich, and Dr. Bela Lengyel of Hughes Aircraft Company for their helpful suggestions and critical review of this paper, and Annabelle Cordova, Harriet Ruderman, and Wilma Bottaccini for their computing services.

Analysis and Performance of Locked-Oscillator Frequency Dividers Employing Nonlinear Elements*

WILLIAM L. HUGHESt, ASSOCIATE, IRE
Summary-The locked-oscillator frequency divider is seldom used because of its inherent instability. One method of stabilizing the locked-oscillator divider is to insert certain nonlinear elements in the oscillator circuits. It is required that these elements have a voltage characteristic that is proportional to an integral root of the current through them. If this condition is met, the locked-oscillator divider can become almost completely insensitive to extreme changes in plate voltage, driving signal voltage, and driving frequency. The fact that the nonlinearity of -the elements can be described mathematically permits some analysis of the circuit nonlinear differential equations.

6. It should not lose synchronization over wide ranges of signal-input voltage amplitudes. 7. The principle of operation should be applicable over wide frequency ranges. It will be shown that the locked-oscillator frequency divider can fulfill these requirements rather well. In the analysis that follows, all calculations are made for output frequencies around 5,000 cps. Except as otherwise noted, all experimental circuits were designed for this frequency.
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF A CIRCUIT TO DIVIDE BY Two In order to design a circuit to divide the frequency of a sinusoidal voltage by two, it is convenient to consider the following fundamental trigonometric identity: 2 + sin cot= {9/2 + 4 sin cot - 1/2 cos 2cot}1/2, (1) An electric analog of this identity could be constructed with current generators feeding a nonlinear element with a volt-ampere characteristic described by E = Ki'12. (2)
INJECTOR
OSCILLATOR
V

INTRODUCTION

T HE LOCKED-OSCILLATOR frequency divider was abandoned early in the development of electronics because of its apparently hopeless instability. The early locked-oscillator dividers depended upon the nonlinearity of the tubes that were used. The nonlinearity was different for individual tubes and varied with small changes of plate and driving signal voltages. It seems reasonable, however, that if the nonlinearity requirement of the locked-oscillator divider could be fulfilled with an element that is not subject to changing characteristics with other parameter changes, the stability of the divider might be improved. The requirements of an ideal frequency divider can be enumerated. 1. It should require no special waveform. 2. It should be independent of random tube changes. 3. It should rarely, if ever, require adjustment. 4. It should require no special plate voltage regulation. 5. It should not lose synchronization over a reasonably wide range of frequency input.
* Decimal classification: R213.2 XR357.3. Original manuscript received by the Institute, April 7, 1952; revised manuscript received, July 16, 1952. t Electrical Engineering Department, Iowa State College, Ames,

Fig. 1-Circuit designed to divide by 2.

The circuit of a possible analog is shown in Fig. 1. The equation governing the circuit is
V=

rowa.

K{IQ +

g.egrl + g.e,2}1120

(3)