Definition of the border between the far and near field zone for printed antenna arrays with high side lobe suppression

Abstract

The paper defines the border between the far and near field zone of printed antenna arrays. The conventional definition has a limited application in side lobe suppression measurements, especially in the case of high side lobe suppression. The paper particularly details the printed antenna array with 8 radiation elements. Its symmetrical tapered feed network with Chebyshev distribution enables side lobe suppression greater than -44 dB in the E-plane. In addition, the influence of tolerances in the standard photolithographic process has been investigated. The expected tolerances in the standard photolithographic process have been assumed with moderate precision in order to estimate the side lobe suppression degradation due to amplitude and phase deviations, as well as deviations to optimized values in radiating element positioning.