Compact C-Band Slotted Waveguide Array Antenna

Using Multi-Mode Metamaterial Array and Multi-

Mode Extractor-Converter Structure
Yasser M. Madany Ahmed F. Miligy
Senior, Member IEEE, Comm. and Electro. Depart., Communications and Electronics Depart.,
Alexandria University, Egypt Alexandria University, Egypt
ymadany@ieee.org ahmed_miligy73@yahoo.com

Abstract—The radiation property of the slotted waveguide extracted from the line using mode extractor at specific
antenna as a class of antenna commonly used in microwave radar position and converted into TE10 mode which was injected to
applications, does not depend on the cross section of the wave- the same line at another position [6]. The guided waves
guide, but on the inclusion. The primary goal of this paper was to structure, as array waveguide radar antenna feeder, is basically
miniaturize a C-Band slotted waveguide antenna using meta- composed of an input and two horizontal linear coupled output
material array structure rather than classical dielectric inclusion ports denoted by 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The guide feeding
and achieve a cross section area reduction about 17.64×10.32 length has been chosen equal to 3λg/4 after several parametric
mm2 and absolute bandwidth up to 550 MHz with enhancement solutions. The multi-mode extractor-converter design method-
TE10 transmission ratio up to 32 and higher modes depression
ology based on square extractor-to-rectangular converter
through combined of circular spiral multi-mode metamaterial
array structure and cone extractor-converter structure compared
waveguide routed through cone transition waveguide channel
to the conventional guided waves. The proposed structures have [6]. The square extractor, with dimension 14.1×14.1 mm2 at a
been introduced and analyzed using the finite element method. distance equals to λg=111.52 mm, has been designed to
propagate TE10 and TE01 modes while the higher mode TE20
I. INTRODUCTION has been depressed. The cone transition waveguide channel has
been designed to support the higher mode TE01. Finally, the
Slotted waveguide antenna is a class of antenna commonly
rectangular converter was designed to support the dominant
used in microwave radar applications. Antennas of this type
TE10 and injected to the same line at a distance equals to 197.2
must exhibit properties desirable for the implementation of a
mm. The proposed structure dimensions are shown in Fig.1.
radar system. It can be seen that one of the desirable functions A
includes the focusing of radiated energy toward a target. H D
Slotted waveguide are found in a variety of 3D radar antennas. B
They have low-loss, high efficiency and radiate linear polariz- B Port 3
ation with low cross-polarization [1]-[2].A metamaterial is a
A R1
material which gains its properties from its structure rather than Port 1
Port 2
directly from its composition. Many important properties of B
C
metamaterials have attracted significant research interest like A K H
the miniaturization of antennas and other microwave circuit without extractor-converter H T
components [3]. This paper aims to miniaturize the dimensions with extractor-converter B R4 R3 a
of the proposed antenna using multimode meta-material array
structure and enhancement the transmission ratio of TE10 with M H
higher modes depression using multimode extractor-converter B/2
A
F B
structure. So, the proposed waveguide antenna has X-band G
dimensions and the capability to operate at 6-8 GHz. The
proposed structures have been introduced and analyzed using
HFSS simulator [4].The metamaterial array structure has been Parameter A B C D E F H I
designed using Rogers RO3010 substrate (r = 10.2, tan = Value (mm) 28.1 14.1 83.6 167.3 250.9 111.5 13.9 13.9

0.0035) and thickness of 0.635 mm. Parameter

Value (mm)
T
6.5
R1
14.8
R2
18.9
M
18
G
197.2
K
37.4
R3
18.5
R4
12.8

II. EXTRACTOR-CONVERTER AND METAMATERIAL ARRAY
DESIGN STRUCTURES
The proposed guided waves feeder structure has been
designed at X-Band frequency [5]. It is possible to propagate
several modes TE10, TE01 and TE20 of electromagnetic waves
within a structure. The physical dimensions of a structure
determine the cutoff frequency for each mode for its
propagation or attenuation. To enhance the dominant mode
TE10 transmission, higher modes of the combined power is
Figure 1. The main dimensions of the proposed structure cross-
section without / with multimode extractor-converter.
Optimum circular spiral unit cell structure has been
designed and analyzed to obtain the desired properties at 6-8
GHz. It was found that all Re[eff ,eff] for dominant TE10 are
closest or equal to zero, then neff  0 with minimum losses
except when Im[eff ,eff] = 0, there is no losses. For higher TE01
and TE20, all Re[eff ,eff] are greater or equal to zero with no
losses for all frequencies. The proposed metamaterial unit cell

978-1-4673-5317-5/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 1548 AP-S 2013

and array dimensions, and the S-parameters scattering simula- guided waves feeder. Each waveguide has 32 rectangular slots
tion results have been obtained from the retrieval method, as for the front side and other identical slots for the back side with
shown in Fig.2. total slots equal to 64 radiating slots per each waveguide. The
n Unit cell characteristics of the proposed slotted waveguide antenna are
u sensitive to the guided waves feeder structure. The main
m j dimensions in mm and the simulated results at the operating
k frequency 6-8 GHz are shown in Fig.4.
53.5
Parameter j k m n u 59.4 73.261
Value (mm) 98.7 53.53 4.53 55.41 5
5
Parameter a b e r1 r2 r3 r4 r5
Value (mm) 5 5 0.24 0.6 0.84 1.08 1.32 1.56 98.695 198.440

(a) 3D View with metamaterial array.

Figure 2. The main dimensions of the proposed metamaterial Slotted waveguide antenna Feeder

unit cell, array structures and its retrieval results. (b) The cross-section and dimensions of the slotted waveguide antenna
The proposed metamaterial array structure is fabricated
using printed circuit technology. Photographs of the proposed
design at laboratory, the simulated and measured S-parameter
characteristics are shown in Fig.3.

(c) The S11 in dB versus frequency in GHz

Re [Zin]
Im [Zin]

(d) The Zin in ohms versus frequency in GHz

TE10 TE01
Figure 3. The fabricated proposed metamaterial array structure
simulated and measured results.
III. SLOTTED WAVEGUIDE ARRAY ANTENNA STRUCTURE
A planar array is designed by placing sticks next to each
other. The proposed C-Band slotted waveguide antenna which
excited from X-Band dimensions and using multimode
metamaterial array in both feeder and antenna consists of two
parallel waveguides connected to the two output ports of the
TE20
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A compact C-band slotted waveguide array antenna
structure with TE10 transmission enhancement using multi-
mode extractor-converter structure has been introduced,
designed and analyzed. The simulated and measured results
investigate that the proposed C-Band wave guide array antenna
operating at 6-8 GHz with X-Band waveguide dimensions
using multi-mode circular spiral metamaterial array structure.
REFERENCES
[1] M.Skolnik, “Introduction to radar systems,” 3rded. McGraw Hill, 2001.
[2] J.Liu, D.R.Jackson, and Y.Long, “Substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)
leaky-wave antenna with tansverse slots,” IEEE Trans. on Ant. and
Propag., vol. 60, no. 1, pp.20 - 29, 2012.
[3] Ari Sihvola, “Metamaterials: A personal view,” Radio Engineering, vol.
18, no. 2, pp. 90–94, June 2009.
[4] High Frequency Structure Simulator package, HFSSv11.1, Ansoft Corp.
[5] G.Ruggerini, “An X-band slotted waveguide array for radar
applications,” the 5th European Conf. on Ant. and Propag.(EUCAP
2011), pp.1912–1914, 2011
[6] H.M.Elkamchouchi, Y.M.Madany, and A.F.Miligy, “Enhancement TE10
transmission of X-Band guided waves structure using mode extractor-
converter,” Intern. Conf. (ICEAA’2011), Italy, pp.603-606, Sep. 2011.

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