BLINDNESS REMOVAL IN ARRAYS OF RECTANGULAR WAVE-GUIDES USING DIELECTRICALLY LOADED HARD WALLS

We analyze an infinite planar array of open-ended rectangular waveguid es in which the E-plane walls are loaded with dielectric slabs in orde r to create a hard boundary condition, The analysis is done by using t he mode-matching method with Floquet nodes in the exterior region, The results show that the hard walls remove the blind spots otherwise pre sent in the element patterns of wide-angle scanning arrays, This occur s both for rectangular and for triangular lattices. Ire addition, the array becomes better matched to see-space in a rectangular lattice. In limited-scan arrays of large square waveguides, the use of the hard w alls increases the array gain by 0.9 dB, it reduces the grating lobe l e Fel in the a plane by II dB and considerably decreases the differenc e between the array characteristics in the E and EI planes.