2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)

Directional Pattern Modeling And Simulation Of Triangular Grid Circular Planar

Array Antennas

Yang Yun Cao Jianshu,Ma Jianchun

Research Institute of Electronic Science and Technology Research Institute of Electronic Science and Technology
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China Chengdu, Sichuan, China
e-mail:12yy12yun@163.com

AbstractBased on a long range early-warning phased array array with N N elements added special two dimensional
radar, the directional pattern of the triangular grid circular window function.
planar array antenna is studied. The mathematical model of
triangular grid circular planar array antennas pattern is
established, and its computer simulation method is described.
In order to form a low side-lobe pattern, the method of Taylor
circular array synthesis is used to optimize the amplitude
distribution of the current excitations. The practice
demonstrates that the simulation method presented is very
efficient and practical.

Keywords- mathematical model; simulation; pattern;

synthesis

I. INTRODUCTION
Phased array radar is widely applied in long rang early-
warning radar and short range air defence radar because of
its excellent performance [1]. Generally, the triangular grid
circular planar array antennas are used in large-scale phase
array radar system, such as AN/PAVE PAWS. However,
there is no good way to build the pattern model of the
triangular grid circular planar array. Reference [2]
established the pattern model of the rectangular grid circular
planar array. But the triangular arrangement is different
from rectangular arrangement. Therefore this paper builds
the mathematical model of triangular grid circular planar
array antennas, and presents a simulation method of the
direction pattern. This method is easy to form fast algorithm,
and its computation load is small.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows.
Firstly, the circular array distribution is given. Secondly, the
direction pattern model of triangular grid circular planar
array antennas is established. In this section, to reduce the
sidelobe level in beam patterns, the method of Taylor
circular array synthesis is proposed. Finally, the computer
simulation results of direction pattern are given.
II. ELMENT ARRANGEMENT OF PLANAR ARRAY
Antenna configuration of triangular grid circular planar
array is shown in figure 1, whose elements are placed in yoz
plane, and d , d / 2 are the element distance along y-
y z
direction and z-direction respectively. In Fig. 1, assuming
that the number of elements is N on the edge of diamond,
then circular planar array can convert into rectangle planar
Figure 1. circular planar array
In phased array design, it is important that how to choose
the element spacing. It is directly related to the antenna cost
and performance, and the reasonable element spacing can
suppress satisfy. Generally, at frequency f and maximum
scan angle s , the theoretic spacing of isosceles triangle grid
phased array antennas is
d 1
y sin 1 + sin
s
(1)
1 6 3
d
z cos 1 + sin s
Where, is angle between the isosceles triangle and y
coordinate; is wave length of radar. It is shown in Fig. 2. If
the element spacing exceeds a critical dimension, grating
lobes occur in the array factor.
Figure 2. isosceles triangle grid
If = / 3 , then (1) expresses constrained conditions
of element spacing in the equilateral triangle grids. In the
condition of given size of circular aperture , the area
occupied by elements in the equilateral triangle grids is

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 2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)

bigger than that in the rectangular grids, so the number of In which

elements of the former is less than the latter. The more 1 = a1 cos sin
elements, the cost of antennas is higher. Therefore, in large- (6)
scale phase array radar system , the array elements arranged 2 = a2 (cos cos sin + sin )
in triangle.
From Fig. 2, we know that a1 = d y .If triangle is equilateral,
III. PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA MODEL
that is to say = 60 , then rewriting (6) as
0

A. Compution of direction pattern

In Fig. 1, assume that the middle of circular planar used 1 = d y cos sin
for point of phase center, that is origin of a polar coordinate. (7)
1 1
If N is odd, then the position of ( m, n ) element on the 2 = d y cos sin + d z sin
aperture can be shown as below: 2 2

N 1 If the array is to form a beam at ( B , B ) , the phase
r mn = m a1 + n a 2 m, n = 0, 1, 2,... (2)
2 difference between elements should be
2
In which a1 , a 2 represent unit vectors of the base and sloping Bmn = m B1 + n B 2 (8)

side of triangular grid respectively. Supposed that the base of In which

triangle is on the y axis, the a1 and a 2 are related to the B1 = a1 cos B sin B
(9)
B 2 = a2 (cos cos B sin B + sin sin B )
a y and a z by: So the pattern of triangular grid rectangle planar array with
a = a a

N N elements is given by:
1 1 y N 1 N 1
(3) 2 2

a2 = a2 cos a y + a2 sin az F ( , ) = I mn e
j ( mn Bmn )
(10)
N 1 N 1
m = n =
Where a1 and a2 are base and sloping side length of triangle 2 2

respectively. Introduce 3 to (2) Where I mn

is amplitude on the ( m, n) grids. Let us draw a
circle, and its radius is rd = ( N 1) d x sin . It is shown in
r mn = ( ma1 + na2 cos ) a y + na2 sin a z
Fig. 1. Now the two-dimension window function is defined
(4) as below:
N 1
m, n = 0, 1, 2, ...
2 = 1 distance between elements and

Suppose is the angle between the observed direction Wmn the centre of a circle less than rd (11)
and xoy plane, and is the angle between the projection on = 0 others
xoy plane of the observed direction and x axis. They are
shown in Fig.3. Where the solid circle represents Wmn = 1 , and the vacant
circle represents Wmn = 0 . From (10) and (11), the pattern of
triangular grid circular planar array elements is computed by:

N 1 N 1
2 2

F ( , ) = N 1 N 1
Wmn I mn e
j ( mn Bmn )
(12)
m= n=
2 2

B. Circular Array synthesis

Figure 3. The observed direction The sidelobe performance of the array system determines
According to the above analysis, the phase difference capability of interference suppress in great degree, so in
between the ( m, n) element and coordinate origin in space order to gain low sidelobe level, we must make pattern
synthesis of the arrays. Generally, several methods have been
is used for synthesis of low-sidelobe sum and difference pattern
2 for circular array. These methods covered Taylor circular
mn = ( m 1 + n 2 ) (5) array synthesis, Bayliss difference pattern for circular array

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 2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)

etc. In this section, Taylor circular array synthesis is B0 = 1

discussed.
The synthesized pattern is derived as a modification of
2
n 1
um
the pattern of a uniformly illuminated circular aperture,
1 z 2
which is J 1 ( z ) / z . Taylors expansion removes the first n =1 (20)
Bm =
n

2
n 1
um
zeros (to n 1 ) and substitutes the new zeros. This
synthesized pattern is
J 0 ( m ) 1
un
2
n =1
nm

J 1 ( z )
2 2
n 1
1 z / zn Where m = 1, 2,...., n 1 . Once again, the useful values of n
F ( z , A, n ) =
z
1 z 2
/ n
2
(13)
are limited to maintain balance between efficiency, sidelobe
n =1

Where z = ( D / ) sin D is diameter of circular aperture; levels, and realization of the amplitude distribution.

J 1 ( w) is the Bessel function of order one ; the zeros n are IV. COMPUTER SIMULATION
the natural zeros of the J 1 ( w) . The zeros of the function Considering a uniform array, the diameter of circular
F ( z , A, n ) are given by aperture is D = 22.5m ; the wave length of radar is = 0.7m ;
the array is to form a beam at (0, 0) ; the maximum scan
angle is s = 60 ; the angle between the isosceles triangle
1/ 2 0
2 1 2
z n = A + ( n ) (14)
2 and y coordinate is = 60 ; the sidelobe level is
0

Where 1 n n . The dilation factor of beam is defined as R = 40 dB , and n = 14 . Based on the II, III section , the
computer simulation steps are list below:

= n
(15) 1) Computing element spacing

2
[ A + ( n 1 / 2) ]
2 1/ 2 1
dy = 0.4332
The parameter A lies on voltage side lobe level R sin 1 + sin s

1
A= ar cosh R , RdB = 20 lg R (16)
dz 1
= 0.3751
The beamwidth is given by 2 cos 1 + sin s
b = 0 / D (17) 2) Computing the quantity of elements in diameter of
circular aperture
In which
N = int[ D /( d y sin )] + 1
2 R
0 =
2 2
( arcoshR ) ( arcosh ) (18) Where int[ ] returns the value of a number rounded
2 downwards to the nearest integer. If d = 0.4332 then y

The aperture distribution is given by N = 61 .

3) Computing the distance rmn from the (m,n) element to
coordinate origin, and comparing with rd , therefore the

n 1

I ( x) = B J m 0
( xm ) (19) two dimensional window function denoted as Wmn is
m=0 obtained
4) Iintroducing rmn into (14), the I mn can be computed.
In which, J 0 is the Bessel function of order zero; 5) According to the arrangement of element, we can
x 2 / D , and 0 2 D . It is necessary to compute compute phase difference of every element.
6) Introducing the above calculating results to (14), the
n 1 values of the coefficients Bm given by pattern of triangular grid circular planar array is simulated.
According to the above steps, the simulation results are
as follows:

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 2010 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS)

The elements arrangement of circular array is shown in

Fig. 4. The amplitude of the aperture distribution is shown in
Fig. 5. The three-dimension array radiation pattern
corresponding to the amplitude distribution of excitations
are shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. As shown in Fig. 7, the three
dimension array pattern has reached the desired results. The
side lobe is below -40dB.

V. CONCLUSION
This paper builds the direction of pattern of triangular
grid circular planar array antennas. It is important in radar
simulation. From simulation results, the math model
Figure 4. The uniform circular array
presented is very efficient and practical. Additionally, for
circular disk or octagonal arrays , the Taylor distribution
presented have found use ,due to its high efficiency.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank Research Institute of Electronic
Science and Technology for the financial support of this
work.
REFERENCES
[1] ZHANG She-xin, Direction Pattern Simulation of Density Weighted
Phased Array Antenna, SHIPBOARD ELECTRONIC
COUNTERMEASUR, Aug.2006
Figure 5. The amplitude of the aperture distribution
[2] NIU Peng-fei, Directional pattern analysis of rectangula grid circular
planar array antenna, Electronics Optics&Contro, Vol.15, No.4,April
2008
[3] Will P.M.N.Keizer,Low-sidelobe Pattern Synthesis Using Iterative
Fourier Techniques Coded in MATLAB,IEEE Antennas and
Propagtion Magazine,Vol.51,No.2,April 2009
[4] Hui Xu, Jian-Xin Li, Research on Thinned Antenna Array of
Spaceborne SAR, IEEE:2007
[5] Chen Ke-song, Sidelobe Reduction of Linear Nonuniformly Spaced
Arrays, IEEE:2006
[6] R.C.HANSEN, Array Pattern Control and Synthesis, IEEE:1992

Figure 6. Circular array beam pattern without synthesis

Figure 7. Circular array beam pattern with Taylor synthesis

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