Interleaved center and edge-fed comb arrays

• US 5,017,931 A
• Filed: 12/15/1988
• Issued: 05/21/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Alliant Techsystems Incorporated (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlyon, William R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Blum, Theodore M.
• Application Number:
  US07/292,024
• Time in Patent Office: 887 Days
• Field of Search: 343/700 MS File, 343/705, 343/708, 343/812, 343/813, 343/824, 343/827
• US Class Current: 343/700.0MS
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/068 using parallel coplanar travelling wave or leaky wave aerial units H01Q21/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/08 the units being spaced along or adjacent to a rectilinear path waveguide fed H01Q21/0037

Abstract

A microstrip antenna array for use at millimeter wave frequencies for radiating and receiving a broadside beam of energy in which a first symmetric edge-fed array has its radiating elements physically interleaved with the radiating elements of a center-fed array. Using this configuration, the antenna performance remains relatively stable over both temperature and frequency.

Claims

1. A microstrip antenna for millimeter wave transmitting and receiving systems, comprising in combination:

(a) a center-fed two-dimensional array of parallel, spaced-apart microstrip transmission lines, each having a plurality of radiating elements conductively joined thereto; and

(b) an edge-fed two-dimensional array of parallel, spaced-apart microstrip transmission lines, each having a plurality of radiating elements joined thereto, the transmission lines and radiating elements comprising said edge-fed array being interleaved with said transmission lines and radiating elements comprising said center-fed array.

2. The microstrip antenna as in claim 1 wherein said radiating elements are comb elements.

3. A microstrip antenna for millimeter wave transmitting and receiving systems, comprising in combination:

(a) a planar dielectric sheet having a conductive ground plane adhered to one major surface thereof and a pattern of printed conductors on the other major surface, said pattern including;

(i) first and second arrays of parallel transmission lines, said arrays being spaced apart from one another with the transmission lines in the first array longitudinally aligned with transmission lines in the second array,

(ii) a plurality of radiating elements conductively joined to each of said transmission lines in said first and second arrays along the lengths thereof and at regular intervals,

(iii) a first feedline conductively joined to a first end of all of said transmission lines in said first array and a second feedline conductively joined to a first end of all of said transmission lines in said second array, said first and second feedlines being on opposed outer edges of said first and second arrays,

(iv) further feedlines joining the mid-points of said first and second feedlines to a common port without intersecting said first and second arrays,

(v) third and fourth arrays of parallel transmission lines, said third and fourth arrays being spaced apart from one another with the transmission lines in said third array longitudinally aligned with the transmission lines in said fourth array,

(vi) a plurality of radiating elements conductively joined to each of said transmission lines in said third and fourth arrays along the lengths thereof and at regular intervals,

(vii) a third feedline conductively joined to a first end of all of said transmission lines in said third array and a fourth feedline conductively joined to a first end of all of said transmission lines in said fourth array, said third and fourth feedlines being on adjacent inner edges of said third and fourth arrays, and

(viii) further feedlines extending in the space between said third and fourth arrays and coupled to the mid-points of said third and fourth feedlines, said transmission lines and radiating elements in said first and second arrays being interleaved with the transmission lines and radiating elements in said third and fourth arrays.

4. The microstrip antenna as in claim 7 wherein said further feedlines associated with said first and second arrays and said further feedlines associated with said third and fourth arrays respectively joined to a signal transmitter and a signal receiver.

5. The microstrip antenna as in claim 7 wherein said radiating elements are comb radiators.