A novel approach to scanning antennas design

Abstract

A new concept for design of scanning antennas is suggested. The concept is based upon a combination of a single radiating element movement with antenna aperture synthesizing. The radiator movement may be either real or virtual one. In turn, the latter may be either mechanical or electronic one. In the paper, the case of electromechanical motion is preferably considered. Various realizations of real and virtual movements of the radiator are shortly described. Examples of the concept implementing are presented. Advantages and drawbacks of the concept are briefly discussed.

Novel concepts for surface movement radar design

“…Scanning rate of the antenna is defined by rotation rate of the inner cylinder and may be rather high when the radar has a properly fast SAR processor. The version of such scanning antennas has been designed in LNDES, IRE NASU and tested jointly with AeroSensing Radar System, GmbH [6]. Some details of its design are shown in Figure 2.…”

“…This idea may be implemented with the help of a new antenna named as Synthetic Aperture Antenna (SAA) [6], [7] in combination with SAR imaging technique and Noise Radar Technology [8], [9]. Fast motion of a resonant radiating slot along a real aperture is a distinguishing feature of the SAA suggested.…”

“…The basic idea of the suggested SAA consists in the following [6]. For antenna beam forming and scanning, we use the principles of 1D antenna array (AA), but with radiation/reception of electromagnetic pulses at each position of a single, moveable radiating/receiving element rather than simultaneous radiation/reception by all elements of the 1D-AA, as usually.…”

“…The number of SAA's to be used depends on the area to be covered. In Section III we present the main idea [6] and formulate general requirements to its basic elements. In Section IV we give a detailed description of three types of the Synthetic Aperture Antenna developed in LNDES IRE NASU [6], [7] which enables avoiding of rotating antennas which are usually used in SMRs.…”

“…In Section III we present the main idea [6] and formulate general requirements to its basic elements. In Section IV we give a detailed description of three types of the Synthetic Aperture Antenna developed in LNDES IRE NASU [6], [7] which enables avoiding of rotating antennas which are usually used in SMRs. In Section V we also present results of theoretical and experimental evaluation of potential capabilities of Noise Radar Technology (NRT) [8], [10] for SMR design and development.…”