Hexagonal array antenna for limited scan spatial applications

摘要

Ninety-one elements are arranged in a phased array of five concentric hexagonal rings about a center element and are connected so as to form nineteen hexagonal sub-arrays of seven dipole elements each and where every second interior element is coincident with a digital beam forming input/output port connected to an adjacent seven sub-aperture feed ports. The center element of each hexagonal sub-array and the elements in the outermost hexagonal ring are fed from one sub-aperture feed port while the interior elements surrounding respective center elements are fed from one sub-aperture feed port of two adjacent input/output ports by way of an element containing a signal combiner. Moreover, the center element of a sub-aperture feed has twice the power as surrounding elements of the sub-aperture. A digital beam former (DBF) is used as an input on transmit or output on receive to produce proper amplitudes and phases to steer the antenna and generate overlapping beams.