Compact Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) Monopulse Network for Ku-Band Tracking System Applications.

A compact single-layer substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) monopulse network for Ku-band tracking system applications is investigated and demonstrated in this work. The feeding network and the monopulse comparator are integrated into a substrate with a structure size of 8.2\lambda0\times 9\lambda0 at center frequency while 32 output ports are welded perpendicularly for connecting active transmit/receive modules. The optimal design of a 3-dB coupler with metallic slots and phase shifter with dual steps is presented. The relative frequency bandwidth (\vert S11\vert, \vert S22\vert, and \vert S33\vert<10\ \ dB) of the network is 6%, in which the phase imbalance of all ports is less than 5.5° [root mean square (rms)], the power imbalance is about 0.5 dB (rms). The insertion losses are about 3–5 dB and the isolations between the three channels are all better than 25 dB. The good performances of this SIW-based monopulse network are validated by measurements, showing the advantages of low cost, light weight, easy fabrication, etc. It presents an excellent candidate for Ku-band tracking systems or up-band millimeter-wave systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]