Surface-Wave Effects on Dielectric Sheathed Phased Arrays of Rectangular Waveguides

We presented the radiation properties of a dielectric-loaded rectangular waveguide array in some detail in a previous paper 1 for two planes of scanning: the H plane and a quasi-E plane. (See Fig. 1.) We discussed the effects of a thick dielectric sheath placed inside or outside the array aperture. We concluded that the presence of a dielectric material can cause a substantial change in the array performance, so that dielectric material should be considered an integral part of the array when it is designed. Moreover, we demonstrated that the effects of a dielectric may be used to improve the match performance of an array, perhaps at the cost of a larger frequency sensitivity, by a judicious choice of the added physical parameters. This paper deals with some different aspects of the problem based 117 118 T H E BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL J O U R N A L , JANUARY 1968 z y Fig. 1 -- An infinite array of rectangular waveguides.