Antenna With Tapered Radiating Elements For Side Lobe Suppression
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle radar antennas suffer from high side lobe gain in both the YZ and XZ planes, leading to poor target resolution and increased noise interference, with complex structures and high manufacturing costs.
Innovation Solution
The antenna design features a substrate with tandem antenna units and a power divider, where radiating elements and transmission lines have gradually decreasing widths and powers, respectively, to suppress side lobe gain, using a simple structure and single feeding port to integrate multiple units, optimizing the Dolph-Chebyshev power ratio for improved performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If equal widths and lengths of radiating elements are used, then the structure is simple, but the side lobe gain becomes large causing poor target resolution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making the widths of radiating elements different across the antenna array. Specifically, the radiating elements have widths that vary according to a predetermined ratio (e.g., 1:0.9:0.8:0.7:0.6:0.5), creating non-uniform local characteristics that suppress side lobe gain while maintaining overall structural simplicity. This local variation in width directly addresses the contradiction by improving target resolution without significantly complicating the structure.
2Device complexity
If equal lengths of transmission lines are used, then the structure is simple, but the side lobe gain in azimuth plane becomes large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality to the transmission lines by assigning different lengths to each transmission line according to a predetermined ratio. This creates non-uniform local characteristics in the power distribution network, which suppresses side lobe gain in the azimuth plane. The varying transmission line lengths directly control the power delivered to each radiating element, improving azimuth plane resolution while keeping the overall structure relatively simple.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional antenna structure with equal parameters is used, then manufacturing is easier, but manufacturing cost is high due to complex structure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by systematically varying the widths of radiating elements and the lengths of transmission lines according to predetermined ratios. This parameter variation approach simplifies the overall structure compared to conventional designs with equal parameters, while the systematic nature of the changes (using simple ratios) makes the design easier to manufacture. The parameter changes directly reduce structure complexity without significantly impacting manufacturing ease.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design effectively reduces side lobe gain in both planes, enhancing target resolution while simplifying the structure and reducing manufacturing costs, maintaining comparable main lobe area and improving detection accuracy.
Implementation Method 1
each radiating element being rectangular... the radiating elements can simultaneously emit electromagnetic waves
Data Source
AI summary
An antenna for suppressing the gain of side lobes includes a substrate, tandem antenna units arranged on the substrate and each including a first feed line and radiating elements, and the width of the radiating elements decreasing gradually from the middle of the first feed line to the two ends; and a power divider disposed on the substrate and including a feeding port, a second feed line with middle connected to the feeding port, and transmission lines, connected to the second feed line respectively. The output powers of the transmission lines decrease gradually from the middle of the second feed line to the two ends, and the transmission lines are respectively connected to the first feed lines. Thereby, the present invention can effectively suppress the gain of the side lobe both in YZ plane and the XZ plane, and improve target detection.