Development of an L Band cylindrical phased array

In radars and electronic warfare systems that are capable of full axis coverage in azimuth, data update rate should be high enough in terms of beam steering/switching. For that purpose, mechanical scanning of the antenna in azimuth is not preferred; rather phased arrays that are capable of 360 degrees electronic beam steering are used. Furthermore, in order not to disturb beam shape with beam steering it is more suitable to use a circular geometry for the antenna arrangement in the corresponding axis. In this paper, development steps of an L Band cylindrical phased array are presented. Antenna element and beam-forming network designs will be introduced together with production and calibration steps. Different methods for determination of antenna element excitation sets for the circular arrangement are discussed. Measured array patterns together with the expected ones will be given with comparison.