Main Content

eggCrate

Create egg crate array of Vivaldi antenna elements

Since R2021a

    Description

    The eggCrate object creates an array of Vivaldi antenna elements arranged in a rectangular egg-crate structure. Egg crate arrays are used in phased array applications in radar systems.

    Egg crate geometry, default radiation pattern, and impedance plot.

    Creation

    Description

    example

    array = eggCrate creates an array of Vivaldi antenna elements arranged in a rectangular egg-crate structure in the X-Y plane at an operating frequency of 825 MHz.

    example

    array = eggCrate(Name,Value) sets additional Properties using name-value pairs. For example, arr = eggCrate('Element', vivaldiOffsetCavity) creates an egg-crate array of offset Vivaldi antenna elements.

    Properties

    expand all

    Vivaldi antenna, specified as a vivaldi or vivaldiOffsetCavity object..

    Example: 'Element',vivaldi

    Number of rows and columns in the egg crate array, specified as a two-element vector.

    Note

    You can use NumElements to determines number of Vivaldi antenna elements in the egg-crate array.

    Example: 'Size',[4 4]

    Data Types: double

    Spacing between the Vivaldi antenna elements, specified as a two-element vector with each element in meters. The first element in the vector represents the spacing between the Vivaldi elements along x-axis. The second element represents the spacing between the Vivaldi elements along y-axis.

    Example: 'Gap',[0.1 0.2]

    Data Types: double

    Magnitude of the voltage applied to the feed, specified as a as a positive scalar or a vector of positive elements in volts. If you specify a vector, the vector should be of the same size as 'NumElements'.

    Example: 'FeedVoltage',2

    Data Types: double

    Phase shift for each element in the array, specified as a real scalar or a vector of real elements in degrees. If you specify a vector, the vector should be of the same size as 'NumElements'.

    Example: 'FeedPhase',-12

    Data Types: double

    Tilt angle of the array specified as a scalar or vector with each element unit in degrees. For more information, see Rotate Antennas and Arrays.

    Example: Tilt=90,

    Example: Tilt=[90 90],TiltAxis=[0 1 0;0 1 1] tilts the array at 90 degrees about the two axes, defined by vectors.

    Data Types: double

    Tilt axis of the array, specified as:

    • Three-element vectors of Cartesian coordinates in meters. In this case, each vector starts at the origin and lies along the specified points on the X-, Y-, and Z-axes.

    • Two points in space, each specified as three-element vectors of Cartesian coordinates. In this case, the array rotates around the line joining the two points in space.

    • A string input describing simple rotations around one of the principal axes, 'X', 'Y', or 'Z'.

    For more information, see Rotate Antennas and Arrays.

    Example: TiltAxis=[0 1 0]

    Example: TiltAxis=[0 0 0;0 1 0]

    Example: TiltAxis='Z'

    Data Types: double

    Solver for antenna analysis, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'SolverType' and 'MoM-PO' or 'MoM' (Method of Moments) or 'FMM' (Fast Multipole Method).

    Example: 'SolverType','MOM'

    Data Types: char

    Object Functions

    showDisplay antenna, array structures or shapes
    solverAccess FMM solver for electromagnetic analysis
    infoDisplay information about antenna or array
    beamwidthBeamwidth of antenna
    chargeCharge distribution on antenna or array surface
    currentCurrent distribution on antenna or array surface
    EHfieldsElectric and magnetic fields of antennas; Embedded electric and magnetic fields of antenna element in arrays
    impedanceInput impedance of antenna; scan impedance of array
    meshMesh properties of metal, dielectric antenna, or array structure
    optimizeOptimize antenna or array using SADEA optimizer
    patternRadiation pattern and phase of antenna or array; Embedded pattern of antenna element in array
    patternAzimuthAzimuth pattern of antenna or array
    patternElevationElevation pattern of antenna or array
    rcsCalculate and plot radar cross section (RCS) of platform, antenna, or array
    returnLossReturn loss of antenna; scan return loss of array
    sparametersCalculate S-parameter for antenna and antenna array objects

    Examples

    collapse all

    Create a default egg-crate array.

    eca = eggCrate
    eca = 
      eggCrate with properties:
    
            Element: [1x1 vivaldi]
               Size: [2 2]
                Gap: [0 0]
        FeedVoltage: 1
          FeedPhase: 0
               Tilt: 0
           TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
         SolverType: 'MoM'
    
    

    View the array using the show function.

    show(eca)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title eggCrate antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 24 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent PEC, feed.

    Plot the radiation pattern of the egg-crate array at a frequency of 825 MHz.

    pattern(eca,825e6)

    Figure contains an axes object and other objects of type uicontrol. The axes object contains 24 objects of type patch, surface.

    Create a 2-by-2 egg-crate array with a spacing of 20 mm between the Vivaldi elements.

    eca = eggCrate('Size',[2 2],'Gap',[20e-3 20e-3])
    eca = 
      eggCrate with properties:
    
            Element: [1x1 vivaldi]
               Size: [2 2]
                Gap: [0.0200 0.0200]
        FeedVoltage: 1
          FeedPhase: 0
               Tilt: 0
           TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
         SolverType: 'MoM'
    
    

    View the array using the show function.

    show(eca)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title eggCrate antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 24 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent PEC, feed.

    Plot the radiation pattern of the array at a frequency of 0.9 GHz.

    pattern(eca,0.9e9)

    Figure contains an axes object and other objects of type uicontrol. The axes object contains 24 objects of type patch, surface.

    Create a 1-by-4 egg-crate array with vivaldiOffsetCavity elements.

    eca = eggCrate('Element',vivaldiOffsetCavity,'Size',[1 4])
    eca = 
      eggCrate with properties:
    
            Element: [1x1 vivaldiOffsetCavity]
               Size: [1 4]
                Gap: [0 0]
        FeedVoltage: 1
          FeedPhase: 0
               Tilt: 0
           TiltAxis: [1 0 0]
         SolverType: 'MoM'
    
    

    View array using the show function.

    show(eca)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title eggCrate antenna element, xlabel x (mm), ylabel y (mm) contains 12 objects of type patch, surface. These objects represent PEC, feed.

    Plot the S-parameters of the array over a frequency range of 14--17 GHz.

    s = sparameters(eca,linspace(14e9,17e9,41));
    rfplot(s)

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel Frequency (GHz), ylabel Magnitude (dB) contains 16 objects of type line. These objects represent dB(S_{11}), dB(S_{21}), dB(S_{31}), dB(S_{41}), dB(S_{12}), dB(S_{22}), dB(S_{32}), dB(S_{42}), dB(S_{13}), dB(S_{23}), dB(S_{33}), dB(S_{43}), dB(S_{14}), dB(S_{24}), dB(S_{34}), dB(S_{44}).

    More About

    expand all

    References

    [1] Chu, Hao-Lung, Ghanshyam Mishra, and Satish K. Sharma. “Dual Polarized Wideband Vivaldi 4x4 Subarray Antenna Aperture for 5G Massive MIMO Panels with Simultaneous Multiple Beams.” In 2018 18th International Symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics (ANTEM), 1–2. Waterloo, ON: IEEE, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/ANTEM.2018.8572871.

    [2] R. Hahnel and D. Plettemeier, "Dual-polarized Vivaldi array for X- and Ku-Band," Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation,2012, pp. 1-2.

    [3] Yan, J., S. Gogineni, Bruno Camps-Raga and J. Brozena. “A Dual-Polarized 2–18-GHz Vivaldi Array for Airborne Radar Measurements of Snow.” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, 2016, vol. 64, pp. 781-785.

    Version History

    Introduced in R2021a