Charateristics of decade-bandwidth, Balanced Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (BAVA) phased arrays with time-delay beamformer systems

Abstract

The first part of this paper presents measured performance of the Balanced Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (BAVA) with U-shaped metallic channels. This new BAVA array is dual polarized with decade bandwidth and wide scan volume. Its depth is half-wavelength at the highest frequency of operation. It can be constructed as modular individual BAVA elements or as a subarray with integrated transmitter / receiver (T/R) modules. This is a unique feature that reduces manufacturing complexity and the cost of field repair. The second part of this paper overviews performance of the BAVA array scanned at wide scan angles using AFRL's Transformational Element Level Array (TELA) Time-Delay Units between 2 GHz to 8 GHz and using fixed delay lines between 2 GHz to 18 GHz. The authors offer guidelines for minimum aperture size to realize decade bandwidth beam scan performance without beam squinting at the lower end of the frequency band.