Analysis of slotted sectoral waveguide array antennas with multilayer radomes and nonzero metal thickness

Abstract

Slotted waveguide array antennas offer low cross-polarization and high power handling capacity, and they are low-profile which enables them to be used in conformal and structurally-integrated antenna solutions. Hence, they are excellent candidates for phased array antennas in radar applications, especially in air platforms. Aerodynamics and radar cross section (RCS) for an air platform are critical design considerations for air platforms; therefore, conformal and structurally-integrated solutions with integrated multilayer (sandwich) radomes are desired. Although the accurate and efficient design and analysis of low-profile conformal slotted waveguide arrays is of great interest, available solution methods in the literature usually suffer in terms of efficiency and memory requirements. Among the available solution methods, one of the widely used solvers are integral equation (IE) based ones that utilize the method of moments (MoM). However, IE solvers suffer from long matrix fill times, especially when cylindrically stratified media are considered. © 2015 IEEE.