I. INTRODUCTION
The study on the radiation pattern of linear dipole antenna arrays, especially the far-field pattern, is discussed in this note. To design a linear array, the far-field pattern and its formulation should be synthesized. The pattern of an array can be expressed as
This is a general rule in array patterns. As per this rule, simple dipoles placed in some geometry can form an arbitrary pattern. Hence, a desired pattern can be achieved by placing these elements in a proper geometry and feeding them with required current. The array factor depends on the current feed of elements and also the way in which these dipoles have been placed together. To achieve the desired pattern with a phased array, the array factor should be properly chosen. Tapering the excitation amplitude in antenna arrays is known to reduce the lobes' level especially those adjacent to the main beam. Suppressing the side lobes saves power in undesired directions on the expense of broadening the main beam, i.e., less directive radiation. A formulation, which makes no direct use of these polynomials, was given in [Reference Kida and Kida1]. During the design it should be taken into account that the main lobe should have maximum power and there must be a minimum number of side lobes with minimum radiation power. The relation between the array factor and designing parameters like spacing, geometry is discussed in the following sections and it will be shown how these parameters can affect the entire pattern.
II. SIGNAL ANALYSIS AND ITS APPLICATION TO ANTENNA ARRAYS
A) Current source in array elements
Let us, for a linear array, assume that the array elements are located on the x − y plane (at the points md x, nd y), m = 0, 1, 2…, M − 1 and n = 0, 1, 2…, N − 1. Let the current source in the array elements have the separable form I(m, n) = I 1(m), I 2(n). The array amplitude pattern is given by (m and n are points of x − y plane)
where
We assume that
Then we conclude that max occurs when
These two equations can be solved for θ and Φ. Now assume that |I 1(n)| and |I 2(m)| are constants, say unity; then
B) Array synthesis
Consider an array with an odd number of elements. The amplitude pattern is given by
From this equation we obtain
Let the amplitude pattern be specified over the range θ €[θ 1, θ 2]. We assume that kd(cos(θ 1) − cos(θ 2)) ≤ 2π.
Then setting Ψ i = kd cos(θ i) + β, i = 1, 2, 3 … .
For the current weights,
where AF(Ψ) is obtained by replacing θ in AF with
C) Width of the main lobe of a uniform linear array
The width of the main lobe of a uniform linear array that has N elements can be determined using
The maximum occurs when θ = π/2, and the first minimum occurs when
or equivalent, when cos(θ) = λ/Nd or
or
Width of the main lobe, i.e. angle between the first two nulls on either side of the max is given by
To design a three-element linear array with non-uniform excitation, so that the nulls of the array occur at θ = θ i, i = 1, 2, 3, … assume that inter-element space is d.
The array factor can be written as
Setting u = I 1/I 0 and v = I 2/I 0.
Then the following equation can be solved for the above design:
D) Correlation between the amplitude patterns
Consider a linear array with a sensor located on the z-axis at a distance d n, n = 1, 2, 3, … , N from the origin. Let d n be a random with mean d no and variance σ n2 small. If we determine the average amplitude pattern and power pattern as well as the correlation between the amplitude patterns along two different directions. And, if this theory is applied to the analysis of dipole antenna. It has been observed that, if we make small variance and the correlation is expected to be nearly 1. The side lobes of the radiation pattern will be reduced to a great extent:
Let
the characteristic function of d n. Note that
The average amplitude pattern is given by
The amplitude correlation is
The multiple correlations may also be evaluated. In particular, the average power pattern is given by
III. EXPERIMENTS
To examine the effects of the randomness in an antenna array, two programs in MATLAB have been written, one for using the conventional method and other in which the effect of the randomness has been studied. Few assumptions are considered as:
1) Uniform current distribution is assumed to be 1 A.
2) There is no mutual coupling effect.
3) Operating frequency for antenna is about 300 MHz.
4) η = 120π.
Conventional plots are represented using red and random plots are represented using blue.
A) Experiment 1
During the first experiment a program is written in MATLAB to verify the characteristics (current distribution, linear, and polar plot of dipole antenna array) of the antenna, such that the effect of randomness can be added further and can be visualized.
For value of length of antenna (in terms of wavelength) 0.5, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75, current distribution is as shown below (Figs. 1–3).
As per the [2] for array factor, different plot will satisfy the equation with MATALB program.
B) Experiment 2
Some experimental results are shown for the conventional dipole antenna design.
Finally in the synthesis, it has been assumed that the sensors are placed randomly over the distance d n (distance 0.20–0.40, in terms of wavelength). With their mean d no and variance σ n2, it has to be taken care that the value of variance σ n2 is very small. As per the amplitude correlation [Reference Harish3] equation, if we KEEP THE value of correlation coefficient is always near to unity, then following results are obtained (Figs 4 and 5).
IV. RESULTS
A procedure for reducing the level of the side lobes of large array antennas made of equal contiguous sub-arrays has been presented. Statistically computed theory of the variation of side-lobe level with range has been designed for long-distance end fire antenna arrays. The purpose of the note is to show that the main characteristics of polar diagrams of long-distance end fire arrays may be inferred from amplitude radiation patterns and the correlation coefficient taken in the Fresnel region.
V. CONCLUSION
The objective of the note is to provide an explanation of the differences of the conventional and random data input behavior of a dipole antenna array. An algorithm that efficiently determines the node coordination of sensors topology has been successfully designed with the help of statistically computed signal analysis. The array geometry that has been considered is a linear node array. Using statistically computed signal analysis in synthesizing array factors results in a lower side lobe level. In order to prove this hypothesis, graphical results are presented. Results for randomly synthesized array factors having suppressed alternate side lobes are compared with those of the conventional array (in number of elements, frequency, and spacing) [Reference Stiles and Jenshak4]. An approximate theory of the variation of the side lobe level was developed for end fire antenna arrays.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Prof. Harish Parthsarthy, N.S.I.T, New Delhi for all his support. I am always grateful for the encouragement of Prof. Seema Verma, Banasthali Vidyapeth, Banasthali that made me write and publish paper. The author will also like to express sincere appreciation and gratitude to R.G.E.C, Meerut which has provided tremendous assistance throughout the project.
Mr. Praveen Kumar Malik A professional qualified and experienced TECHNICAL and CREATIVE person with extensive knowledge and skills in Microcontroller, Embedded System and Antenna. Praveen Kumar Malik is working in the department of Electronics and Communication, Radha Govind Engineering College, Meerut, UP INDIA. He is B Tech and M Tech from Electronics and Communication system resp. He is having 2 papers in international referred journals. Having more then 10 papers in international and national conference. E mail: malikbareilly@gmail.com
Prof. Harish Parthasarthy is working in department of Electronics and Communication, Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, New Delhi, INDIA. He is B Tech from IIT Kanpur, Ph D from IIT Delhi and Post-doctoral fellowship from IIA Bangalore. His major area of interest is, DSP, statistically signal processing, Antenna. He is having more then 10 papers in international referred journals and IEEE transaction. Having more then 20 papers in international conference and has written more then 6 technical and sound books also. e-mail: harishp@nsit.ac.in