Square Coaxial Unequal Power Divider For Microstrip Patch Antenna

Used In SAR Application

Mohit Khanna, A.K.Pandey, B.K.Pandey S.B.Chakrabarty

Antenna System Group

Space Applications Centre, ISRO
Ahmedabad

Abstract: feeder network in terms of volume and weight.

The paper presents the design and simulation of
an unequal power divider using square coaxial 2.0 Design:
line(SCL). Initial paper design of T junction A Microstrip planar antenna requiring shaped
was carried out using the formulation available beam pattern in elevation plane and –16dB side
in literature. Final optimization was carried out lobe level in azimuth plane is being developed.
using Finite element based software. The power The requirement for –16dB side lobe is fulfilled
divider has been designed for power ratio of by unequal power division embedded in feeder
1:1.4. Appropriate impedance transformation network. For this an unequal power divider is
within limited space is done in power divider to designed in SCL. To fulfill the requirement of –
achieve required power ratio. The optimization 16 db side lobe level 1:1.4 power ratio in the
is carried out for centre frequency 5.35 GHz. unequal power divider is required. The power
The bandwidth in terms of return loss and power divider in SCL is designed for power ratio of
ratio is better than 11%. The measured and 1:1.4.
simulated results have been presented. The most important parameter to be chosen for
design of SCL is characteristic impedance. In
1. Introduction: this case, 50 ohm is chosen for characteristic
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is widely used as impedance. The cross-sectional view of SCL is
an efficient tool for remote sensing. Generally, shown in fig1 where a and b are the outer and
planar antennas are well suited for SAR inner dimensions of SCL.
applications. The most commonly used planar
array is microstrip patch array antenna which is
inherently low profile and light weight. There is
a serious limitation associated with the power
handling capability of microstrip patch antenna
and cannot be directly used for SAR systems
where a pulse peak power of several kilowatts is
b a
used. For such applications a hybrid antenna
where the feeder incorporated in waveguide or
SCL can be used. High input power level within
feeder networks is brought to lower power levels
by using cascaded power dividers. These lower
power levels are then fed to microstrip patch
antenna.
An Airborne SAR system at C band under the Fig 1
disaster management program is being
developed at SAC, Ahmedabad. This SAR
operates at 8 KW peak power with 0.9% duty
cycle. The feeder network for the microstrip The characteristic impedance equation[1][2] for
planar antenna is incorporated in SCL. The SCL SCL is given by the following equation
technology has advantage over the waveguide

1
 Zo=50 ZT2 ZT3 Zo=50
47.086(1 − b / a) 1
z0 = (1)
0.279 + 0.721(b / a) e

2 3
The impedance is dependent on ratio b/a. The
power handling capability is dependent on the ZT1
gap between a and b. The more the gap is more
power it can handle. But there exist a trade off.
If there is more gap higher order modes can also
propagate. The dominant mode of propagation is 1
TEM. To avoid higher order mode of
Zo=50
propagation the gap should be less. For the 50-
ohm square coaxial line (SCL), the inner
Fig. 2: Schematic diagram of Power
conductor used in the coaxial line is 4.8mm and
Divider
outer conductor is 12mm. The gap gives 11 dB
margin from corrosion. With this gap the cutoff
frequency for dominant higher order TE10( or After calculating all the impedances, the
TE01) mode is 10GHz[3]. required b for all the impedances for fixed
a=12mm is obtained from equation(1). Using the
1:2 Unequal Power Divider calculated dimensions b for different
As there was requirement of –16 dB sidelobe impedances and length of transformers, the
level, instead of uniform distribution tapered electromagnetic optimization of the design is
distribution is given to antenna elements. To carried out on CAD software based on finite
fulfill this purpose an unequal power divider is element method. The model developed in CAD
designed. The present design is aimed at software is shown in fig3. The optimization was
achieving –16 dB side lobe level. For this the carried for return loss and required power ratio.
required power ratio between two output ports is
1:1.4. Fig-2 shows the scheme of power divider. Port3
The input and output section is of 50 ohm. The
impedance ratio at the Tee junction required to
Inner
give required power ratio is given by equation 2.
Conductor
Z 2 P3 Outer
= (2) Conductor
Z 3 P2
The required impedance at the junction is
achieved by two transformers ZT2 and ZT3. The
impedance at the junction seen by input port is Port1
parallel combination of Z2 and Z3 and is given
by equation 3.

Z2 * Z3
Z // = (3)
Z2 + Z3
The transformer ZT1 transforms input 50 ohm
impedance to Z //. By using three transformers Port2
ZT1,ZT2 and ZT3 the power divider is
incorporated in limited space.
Fig.3 1:2 Unequal Power Divider

2
The simulated return loss and power coupling is
given in fig. 4.
3.Measurement Results and Discussion:
The measurement is carried out on HP8510C
network analyzer. The measured return loss and
power ratio between two output ports are shown
in fig 5 and 6 respectively. As seen from fig 5
the return loss pattern is closely matching with
simulated performance. The level in the two are
not exactly same. This is because of fabrication
and assembly tolerances. In fig 6 the obtained
power ratio is better than the required power
ratio of 1:1.4. The deviation is mainly due to
fabrication tolerances.

1:2 UNEQUAL POWER DIVIDER(1IN /

3OUT)

Fig.4 Simulated Return Loss and Unequal -5

RETURN LOSS(dB)
Power Coupling of 1:2 Unequal Power
-10
Divider S11(dB)
-15

The optimized dimension for the power divider

-20
is fabricated. N type connectors are used for
input and output section. A transition is also -25
5.05 5.15 5.25 5.35 5.45 5.55 5.65
incorporated in the power divider to make it
FREQUENCY(GHz)
compatible with N type connector. The power
divider is shown in fig 4.1
Fig.5 Measured return loss

Fig 6:Power Division

Fig 4: 1:2 Unequal Power Divider

3
4.0 Conclusion:
An unequal power divider in square coaxial line
is developed for 1:1.4 power division ratio. The
measured and simulated results are closely
matching. The slight deviation is accounted to
fabrication tolerances.
Acknowledgement:
The author thank Group Head ASG, Group
Director ASG and Director SAC for necessary
support and encouragement.
References:
[1]Jaroslaw Uher, Jens Bornemann, Uwe
Rosenberg, " Waveguide Components for
Antenna Feed Systems: Theory and CAD"
Artech House Publications,1993
Chapter 3,pp 133-139
[2] Harry E. Green," The Characteristic
Impedance of Square Coaxial Line" IEEE
Transaction on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, November 1963 pp554-555
[3]L. Gruner," Higher Order Modes in Square
Coaxial Lines" IEEE Transaction on Microwave
Theory and Techniques, Vol.MTT-31No.9
September 1983,pp 770-771
[4] L. Gruner," Higher Order Modes in
Rectangular Coaxial Waveguides" IEEE
Transaction on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, August 1967,pp483-485
[5]F Alessandri, M Mongiardo, R Sorrentino,"
Computer Aided Design of Beam Forming
Networks for Modern Satellite Antennas" IEEE
Transaction on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, Vol.MTT-40No.6 June 1992,pp
1117-1127