CORPORATE FEED DESIGN FOR MICROSTRIP ARRAYS

A design technique for an embedded microstrip corporate feed is presen ted. The aim of the design is to ingeniously shape each corporate feed junction in order to acquire a tapered and in-phase output current di stribution. From this a Dolph-Chebyshev array sum pattern may be const ructed. In the experiments, the designed corporate feed is used to exc ite a five-element equispaced linear array of overlay microstrip dipol es. It has been found both theoretically and experimentally that a 20- dB Dolph-Chebyshev broadside sum pattern can be synthesized in the H-p lane at 8.5 GHz. Mutual coupling among the dipoles is included in this analysis. The pattern degradation due to manufacturing tolerances on the alignment between the feed network and the dipole array is also di scussed.