Phase Compensation of Composite Material Radomes Based on the Radiation Pattern

• Published in: Chinese journal of mechanical engineering Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 587 - 594
• Main Authors: LI, Peng, LI, Na, XU, Wanye, SONG, Liwei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society 01.05.2017; Springer Nature B.V; Key Laboratory of Electronic Equipment Structure Design of Ministry of Education, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071,China; State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions,Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China%Key Laboratory of Electronic Equipment Structure Design of Ministry of Education, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071,China
• Edition: English ed.
• Subjects: Apertures; Compensation; Composite materials; Computer simulation; Distortion; Electrical Machines and Networks; Electronics and Microelectronics; Engineering; Engineering Thermodynamics; Far fields; Heat and Mass Transfer; Instrumentation; Machines; Manufacturing; Mechanical Engineering; Original Article; Phase distribution; Phase shift; Power Electronics; Processes; Radomes; Reflector antennas; Sidelobes; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; 反射面天线; 复合材料; 相位补偿; 补偿策略; 辐射型; 辐射特性; 远场方向图; 雷达天线罩; Radome; Radiation pattern; Composite materials; Phase compensation
• ISSN: 1000-9345; 2192-8258
• DOI: 10.1007/s10033-017-0133-1

Some compensation methods have been pro- posed to mitigate the degradation of radiation characteris- tics caused by composite material radomes, however most of them are complex and not applicable for large radomes, for example, the modification of geometric shape by grinding process. A novel and simple compensation strat- egy based on phase modification is proposed for large reflector antenna-radome systems. Through moving the feed or sub-reflector along axial direction opportunely, the modification of phase distribution in the original aperture of an enclosed reflector antenna can be used to reduce the phase shift caused by composite material radomes. The distortion of far-field pattern can be minimized. The modification formulas are proposed, and the limitation of their application is also discussed. Numerical simulations for a one-piece composite materials sandwich radome and a 40 m multipartite composite materials sandwich radome verify that the novel compensation strategy achieves sat- isfactory compensated results, and improves the distortion of the far-field pattern for the composite material radomes. For one-piece dielectric radome, more than 60% phasedifference caused by radome is reduced. For multipartite radome, the sidelobe level improves about 1.2 dB, the nulling depth improves about 3 dB. The improvement of far-field pattern could be obtained effectively and simply by moving the feed or sub-reflector according to phase shift of the radome.