Performance Evaluation on Radiation Characteristics of Kaiser-Based Linear Antenna Array

Abstract

The effect of amplitude or phase weighting of excited signal on a feeding network of antenna array will impact on the array radiation characteristics. This paper discusses performance evaluation on radiation characteristics of a Kaiser-based linear antenna array with small even variations of elements number $(N)$, namely $1 \times 4,\ 1\times 6$, and $1 \times 8$. The use of Kaiser function in weighting method will give significant sidelobe level (SLL) suppression and offer a flexibility by changing the value of $\beta$ parameters. Moreover, the increase of $N$ also affects the diminishment of width of main lobe (WML) value and provides almost constant front to back ratio (FBR) value. In $1\times 4$ Kaiser-based linear antenna array, the radiation characteristics show the non-appearance of sidelobe, so the SLL suppression value is undetermined, whereas the WML and FBR values are 30° and 13.32 dB, respectively. The performance of a $1 \times 6$ Kaiser-based linear antenna array has the SLL suppression from -34.35 dB up to -33.73 dB, WML of 25°, and FBR of 13.36 dB. Meanwhile, the radiation characteristics of $1\times 8$ Kaiser-based linear antenna array provide the SLL suppression from -34.26 dB up to -33.87 dB, WML of 17°, and FBR of 13.36 dB. Furthermore, the gain achievements show the enhancement for the bigger number of $N$, namely 8.43 dB for $1 \times 4$, 9.13 dB for $1 \times 6$, and 11.07 dB for $1\times 8$.