Long Slot Array (LSA) Antenna Integrated with Compact Broadband Coupled Microstrip Impedance Transformer

Loon Y. Lee , Hyoung-sun Youn and Magdy F. Iskander

Hawaii Center for Advanced Communication (HCAC) College of Engineering, University of Hawaii Honolulu, HI, 96822 hsyoun@hawaii.edu
AbstractIn this paper, a miniaturized coupled microstrip impedance transformer has been developed and integrated with the long slot array (LSA) antenna as a feeding structure. The proposed impedance transformer offers low cost capability by employing printed circuit technology and compact size circuitries can be accomplished by a miniaturization technique, i.e. meandering. Conventional microstrip impedance transformers which can be designed to cover the frequency band of interest (225 MHz 450 MHz) are too large to be directly implemented onto the LSA due to their limited space on the metallic strip section between feeds. To overcome this issue, miniaturization particularly the meandered transmission line is applied and the compact size (2.1 cm X 3.1 cm) impedance transformer has been developed. The developed impedance transformer provides less than 1 dB insertion loss over the operation frequency range and it is small enough to be directly implemented on the LSA. The developed impedance transformers were implemented to each port of the planar LSA as a feeding structure and their feasibility was tested by using HFSS. Simulation result shows that the LSA integrated with the developed impedance transformer provided very similar radiation pattern and gain as the LSA excited by ideal lumped ports.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, researches on developing wideband antennas have been conducted to replace the conventional phased array employing discrete elements that are costly to fabricate. For this reason, a continuous long slot aperture array antenna has been introduced and showed impressive performance especially at low band applications [1,2]. The long slot array (LSA) antennas without the ground plane provided extremely broad bandwidth. However, the bandwidth of the LSA is greatly reduced by placing a ground plane to obtain unidirectional radiation pattern [2]. To overcome this issue, in our previous research, a hybrid Ferrite/EBG ground plane which provides low profile with ultrawide bandwidth (40:1) has also been developed and tested in [3]. A cylindrical version of the LSA integrated with cylindrical hybrid EBG/Ferrite ground plane was evolved from the planar LSA antenna to obtain omni-directional radiation pattern while maintaining the ultra-wide bandwidth characteristics [4]. One major advantage of the LSA does not require a balun, since it supports unbalanced feeding. However, impedance of the radiating apertures usually range from 200 up to 377 depending on

the models physical structure and the resistive loading on the ground plane. Therefore, for the LSA antenna to be connected to the typical 50 ohm RF cable, the LSA is necessary to be integrated with wideband impedance transformers. For easier fabrication and lower cost, an impedance transformer which can be directly fabricated on the LSA structure is preferable. For this reason, a miniaturized coupled microstrip impedance transformer has been developed and integrated with the planer LSA as a feeding structure is described in this paper. The LSA integrated with the transformer was designed to operate in 225 450 MHz band. The developed microstrip impedance transformer can be directly implemented on metallic strips of the LSA by using the printed circuit technology and it has 4:1 ratio that matches 200 of radiation aperture impedance to the 50 of typical RF source impedance, i.e. coaxial cable. Performances of the LSA integrated with the impedance transformer were analyzed by HFSS simulation. Simulation results were compared to the LSA with the exact physical parameters excited by ideal lumped ports. Both cases provided very similar radiation pattern and gain over the bandwidth, which indicates that the proposed feeding structure using the impedance transformer effectively excites EM wave through slots of the LSA. In following section, detail dimensions of the developed impedance transformer and its simulation results are presented. II. BROADBAND COUPLED MICROSTRIP TRANSMISSION LINE IMPEDANCE TRANSFORMER

In most microwave applications, the conventional quarterwave impedance transformers are still widely used due to their ease of implementation, but they typically have bandwidth limitation. For this reason, an impedance transformer using the multi-section or tapered line has been developed for wideband applications. However, these impedance matching networks usually require larger space especially for operations at low frequencies. On the other hand, an impedance transformer using the coupled transmission line [5] provides broad bandwidth characteristics and a compact size can be achieved by the meandering miniaturization [6]. Therefore, this paper adopted the design of the coupled microstrip transmission line impedance transformer from [6] to develop a broadband, compact size impedance transformer. The impedance transformer in [6] was designed to cover the frequencies from

978-1-4673-0462-7/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

0.52 GHz to 1.72 GHz with the center frequency at 1.1 GHz. By increasing the length of the middle section of the impedance transformer, its operation frequencies can be shifted toward to lower frequency while maintaining the bandwidth. Subsequently, the straight transmission line in the impedance transformer is miniaturized by using meandering shape as shown in Figure 1 (a). Physical dimensions of the developed miniaturized impedance transformer are described in Figure 1 (a). The circuitry was modeled on a substrate (thickness = 0.8, r = 2.55) and its length between 50 and 200 ports is 2.1 cm while the width of the circuit including the meandered transmission line is around 3.1 cm. Figure 1(b) plots simulated insertion loss and return loss of the impedance transformer. This provides insertion loss less than 1 dB over the bandwidth. Figure 2 illustrates the implementation of the transformer on the LSA. Backing PEC plate of the substrate is used as a PEC strip for the LSA. Developed impedance transformers are implemented on opposite side of the substrate. The 200- port in Fig. 1(a)) of the impedance transformer is placed on into each feeding position of the LSA and these ports are connected to the PEC backing side of next substrate (PEC strip) using thin wire as shown. A 50- coaxial cable is directly connected to the 50- port of each impedance transformer. Each coaxial cable was excited by the wave port provided in the HFSS simulation. Since spacing between feeders in the LSA is 6 cm, the developed impedance transformer can be implemented on each port without coupling effect or interference. As it can be seen multiple impedance transformers are implemented in one PEC strip. Characteristics of the LSA integrated with the impedance transformers were simulated by HFSS. To evaluate its performance, simulation results were compared with those of the LSA excited by ideal lumped ports which were used in [4]. III. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

[4]

[5]

[6]

H.S. Youn, L. Lee, N. Celik, M.F. Iskander, Design of a Cylindrical Long-Slot Array Antenna Integrated with Hybrid EBG/Ferrite Ground Plane" has been accepeted by the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, 2010 T. Jensen., V. Zhurbenko, V. Krozer, and P. Meincke, Coupled transmission line as impedance transformer, [j]. IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., 2007 vol. 55, no.12: 2957-2965. X. Zhou, X.G. Liu, H.P. Guo, L.X. Shao, Design of broadband impedance transformer using coupled microstrip transmission line, Microwave, Ant. Prop. And EMC Tech. for Wireless Comm. Internation Symp., 2009, pp. 994 997

Figure 1. Miniaturized coupled Microstrip impedance transformer (Top), and simulation results of the developed impedance transformer (bottom).

Figure 3 plots the simulated radiation pattern and gain of the LSA with ideal 200- lumped ports and the LSA integrated with the micro strip impedance transformers at 450 MHz. As one can see, both cases produce omni-directional radiation pattern with about 1 dBi gain. Note that similar results were observed over the operational bandwidth. These results indicate that the proposed feeding structure consisting of impedance transformer connected to a 50- coaxial cable behave properly as the ideal lumped port. In current model, each impedance transformer is connected with independent coaxial cable fed by the wave port in order to test feasibility of direct implementation of the impedance transformer. However, by integrating microstrip power splitters next to the impedance transformer, the number of coaxial cable connected the LSA can be reduced and this task is in progress. REFERENCES
[1] [2] [3] A. Neto and J.j. Lee, Infinite bandwidth long slot array antennas, IEEE Antennas Wireless Prog. Lett., vol. 4, pp. 75-78, 2005 A. Neto, J.J. Lee, Ultrawide-band Properties of Long-Slot Arrays, IEEE Trans. On Ant. And Prop. Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 534-543, Feb. 2006 J.M. Bell, M.F. Iskander, Experimental Analysis of an Ultrawideband Hybrid EBG/Ferrite Ground Plane, IEEE Trans. On Inst. And Meas., Vol. 58, No. 8, pp. 2899-2905, Aug. 2009

Figure 2. The long slot array antenna integrated with impedance transformers. 50 sides of the impedance transformers are directly connected with coax cable.

Figure 3. Radiation pattern of a PLSA excited by ideal 200 lumped port (left), and the proposed feeding structure with impedance transformer connected with 50 coax cable (right).