Computer aided impedance matching of an interleaved waveguide phased array

The active admittance of a reduced-size dielectric-loaded waveguide in an interleaved phased array has a low conductance component and a high VSWR. Matching the impedance of such an element poses a difficult problem, in particular if it is desired to achieve matching over a wide frequency band. In this communication, a method to design an impedance transformer for matching such a load based on an optimization approach is presented. The computer results show that a load with a VSWR of 7 to 8 across a 10 percent bandwidth can be matched to achieve a VSWR of about 1.25 across the same band.