Generalized moment method analysis of planar reactively loaded rectangular waveguide arrays

Abstract

A combined modal expansion and moment method is applied for analyzing finite planar arrays of rectangular waveguides in an infinite ground plane including reactively loaded waveguide elements. The analysis, which is based on the moment method for solving the aperture problem, in combination with the modal analysis for the reactively loaded waveguide cavities or feeding waveguides, extends the network formulation of single apertures to multiple waveguide arrays including reactively loaded elements. Two orthogonally polarized sets of basic functions are utilized to model the expansion into the complete set of eigenmodes is used to formulate the waveguide cavity problem. The theory is applied to a finite planar array of arbitrarily spaced rectangular waveguides, where reactive loads are realized by placing sliding electrical conductors at specified distances in each of the unfed waveguides. Numerical design examples show that beamforming, beamsteering, and the improvement of the crosspolarization behavior is possible by a suitable choice of the geometrical parameters. The theory is verified by results available from the literature as well as newly performed experimental measurements. >