Dipole uniform circular array backed by a cylindrical reflector

A 12-element thin dipole uniform circular array (UCA) is studied using the Method of Moments. The effect of metallic back reflectors on the array performance, in terms of the maximum realized gain, the mutual coupling level, and the synthesized patterns, is investigated. Over the inter-element spacing range, 0.3 λ0 ≤ d ≤ 0.7λ0, simulation results show that the introduction of the cylindrical reflector achieves at least 1.0dB higher the gain than the one without using the reflector. Radial metallic ‘partition walls’ is proposed to be placed between axially oriented dipoles. The use of the ‘partition walls’ realizes further gain enhancement and H-plane mutual coupling reduction. At d = 0.4λ0 and d = 0.6λ0, maximum coupling between elements is suppressed to a level below −13dB and −20dB respectively when the height of the ‘partition walls’, hwall, is greater than 0.175λ0. In the synthesized realized gain pattern, mainlobe to sidelobe ratio better than 15dB and 13dB is obtained.