Complementary interleaved CDS arrays to improve antenna aperture utilization

Volume usage is an important issue in space-based satellite communication systems. In this paper, antenna array elements are interleaved into one aperture in order to avoid using two separated antennas. The method utilizes two complementary cyclic difference set (CDS) arrays, where equal array element excitations reduce the complexity of the driving network and improve the efficiency of its direct current-to-radio frequency power conversion. Adding elements to each array member and placing them in symmetry with respect to the origin at distances arranged to form an equivalent amplitude using Hamming and cosine squared taperings decrease the side lobe levels and beam widths. The amplitude-to-space conversion is achieved through an equal area approximation. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in interleaving two arrays sharing one aperture for two beam antennas, each one with a narrowed beam width and decreased side lobes. The proposed method offers antenna design flexibility for a given aperture size despite the limited number of CDSs. The measurements demonstrate that compared to the original CDS performance, the arrays have a narrower beam width of at least 3 degrees and a lower side lobe level of at least 1.66 dB, with a difference of less than 0.9 dB between simulations and reality.