Analysis and Design of Antennas for Air Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems

The analysis and design procedure of an antenna for a CW Doppler radar system being developed for pilot warning of midair collision hazards is presented. The antenna consists of two vertical arrays of half-wavelength dipoles mounted near a circular conducting cylinder. Each vertical array is composed of three vertical dipoles. Each array provides relatively uniform illumination (2-3 dB) in the forward 180 angular segment of the horizontal plane and approximately + 10-150 coverage in the vertical plane. The antenna could be used in a two-mode operation, either in a standard monopulse radar system (sum and difference amplitude patterns) or in a system where amplitude and phase are the measurable quantities.