Processing Method of Radiation Pattern in Active Phased Array Antennas Development

Abstract

During a course “Development of CPU based on microchips” there is a section about digital signal processing and its algorithms. For a better educational experience it is useful to look not only on theoretical knowledge but to approach a problem from real life tasks, for example in radio-frequency engineering. In the field of antenna design there are techniques for the testing of antennas to ensure that it meets specifications or simply to characterize it. Typical parameters of antennas are gain, beamwidth, efficiency, directivity. To find these parameters it is necessary to measure Radiation Pattern (RP). This paper deals with the problem of analyzing measured sets of RPs when developing new or testing old active Phased Array Antennas (APAA). Analysis done manually, by going through each data set and finding each parameter, which requires good understanding and knowledge of antennas, which is not always a case when APAA is in exploitation. It is preferable to make process automated to remove possibility of human error and to speed up the analysis. For better understanding of a process, examples of RP's graphical representation shown. Given equation dependencies of APAA's parameters from RP's properties. Proposed processing method of array of data from which RP is drawn, to find RP's properties. Given systematic algorithm for each property. Shown results of applying given method of processing data. Given method heavily relies on correctly found lobes. There is a wide variety of methods and algorithms that can be applied to find them. We show an algorithm from the point of limited knowledge of the field (in this case-radio-frequency engineering) and what it is used for. Such overview gives students understanding of a problem and gives them an opportunity to offer their ideas and to then look at them and possible ways hand in hand with theoretical knowledge of the course.