Square Coaxial Line Power Divider For SAR Application

Mohit Khanna, Anil. Kr. Pandey, B.K.Pandey, Sanjeev Kulshrestha, S.B.Chakrabarty

Space Applications Centre, Antenna System Group, ISRO, Ahmedabad

Abstract

The paper presents the design and simulation of an unequal power divider using square coaxial line
(SCL). Initial paper design of T-junction was carried out using the formulation available in
literature. Final optimization was carried out using Finite element based software. The power
divider has been designed for power ratio of 1:1.4. Appropriate impedance transformation within
limited space is done in power divider to achieve required power ratio. The optimization is carried
out for centre frequency 5.35 GHz. The bandwidth in terms of return loss and power ratio is better
than 11%. The measured and simulated results have been presented.

I. Introduction

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is widely used as an efficient tool for remote sensing.
Generally, planar antennas are well suited for SAR 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 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 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
planar antenna is incorporated in SCL. The SCL technology has advantage over the
waveguide feeder network in terms of volume and weight.

II. Design

A Microstrip planar antenna requiring shaped beam pattern in elevation plane and –16dB side
lobe level in azimuth plane is being developed. The requirement for –16dB side lobe is
fulfilled by unequal power division embedded in feeder network. For this an unequal power
divider is designed in SCL. To fulfill the requirement of –16 db side lobe level 1:1.4 power
ratio in the unequal power divider is required. The power divider in SCL is designed for
power ratio of 1:1.4. The most important parameter to be chosen for design of SCL is
characteristic impedance. In this case, 50 ohm is chosen for characteristic impedance. The
cross-sectional view of SCL is shown in fig.1 where a and b are the outer and inner
dimensions of SCL.

b a Fig 1 Cross-Section of Square

Coaxial Line
The characteristic impedance equation[1][2] for SCL is given by the following equation

47.086(1 − b / a) 1
z0 = (1)
0.279 + 0.721(b / a) e

The impedance is dependent on ratio b/a. The power handling capability is dependent on the
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 TEM. To avoid higher order mode of propagation the gap should be less. For
the 50-ohm square coaxial line (SCL), the inner conductor used in the coaxial line is 4.8mm
and outer conductor is 12mm. The gap gives 11 dB margin from corrosion. With this gap the
cutoff frequency for dominant higher order TE10 (or TE01) mode is 10GHz[3].

1:2 Unequal Power Divider

As there was requirement of –16 dB sidelobe level, instead of uniform distribution tapered
distribution is given to antenna elements. To fulfill this purpose an unequal power divider is
designed. The present design is aimed at achieving –16 dB side lobe level. For this the
required power ratio between two output ports is 1:1.4. Fig-2 shows the scheme of power
divider. The input and output section is of 50 ohm. The impedance ratio at the Tee junction
required to give required power ratio is given by equation 2.

Z 2 P3
= (2)
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 parallel combination of Z2 and Z3 and is given
by equation 3.

Z 2  Z3
Z // = (3)
Z 2 + Z3
The transformer ZT1 transforms input 50 ohm impedance to Z //. By using three transformers
ZT1,ZT2 and ZT3 the power divider is incorporated in limited space.
Zo=50 ZT2 ZT3 Zo=50

2 3
ZT1

1 Zo=50

Fig. 2: Schematic diagram of

Power Divider
After calculating all the impedances, the required b for all the impedances for fixed a=12mm
is obtained from equation(1). Using the calculated dimensions b for different impedances and
length of transformers, the electromagnetic optimization of the design is carried out on CAD
software based on finite element method. The model developed in CAD software is shown in
fig3. The optimization was carried for return loss and required power ratio. The simulated
return loss and power coupling are given in fig.4.
Port3

Outer
Conductor
Inner
Conductor

Port1
The simul

Fig4 Simulated Return Loss and

Port2 Unequal Power Coupling of 1:2
Unequal Power Divider
Fig.3 1:2 Unequal Power Divider
The optimized dimension for the power divider is fabricated. N type connectors are used for
input and output section. A transition is also incorporated in the power divider to make it
compatible with N type connector. The power divider is shown in fig 5.

Fig5: 1:2 Unequal Power Divider

III. 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 6 and 7 respectively. As seen from fig
6 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 7 the
obtained power ratio is better than the required power ratio of 1:1.4. The deviation is mainly
due to fabrication tolerances.

UNEQUAL POWER DIVISION

1:2 UNEQUAL POWER DIVIDER(1IN /
3OUT)
1.8

0 1.7
RETURN LOSS(dB)

-5
1.6

RATIO
-10 Ratio
S11(dB) 1.5
-15

-20 1.4

-25 1.3
5.05 5.15 5.25 5.35 5.45 5.55 5.65 5.05 5.15 5.25 5.35 5.45 5.55 5.65

FREQUENCY(GHz) FREQUENCY(GHz)

Fig.6 Measured return loss Fig 7:Power Division

IV. 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.6June1992,pp1117-1127