Coupling Modeling for Ripple of Array Power Supply and Electromagnetic Performance of Active Phased Array Antennas

The inevitable ripple of the array power supply can seriously degrade the electromagnetic performance of active phased array antennas due to the caused excitation amplitude and phase errors output by transmitter and receiver (T/R) module for each element. First, a ripple coefficient calculation model for array power supply is presented to quickly obtain the ripple coefficient, an important indicator to evaluate the voltage ripple. The caused excitation amplitude and phase errors are analyzed and introduced in array antenna pattern, and a coupling model of the ripple of power supply and electromagnetic performance of phased array antenna is established, giving the quantitative relationship between power supply ripple and array antenna performance, which can be used as long as the circuit device parameters are known. At last, the effect of voltage ripple on antenna performance is simulated under different current distribution, ripple coefficient, antenna electric dimension, and temperature field distribution, and the results show that the presented method can quickly obtain the ripple coefficient and analyze the effect of ripple on antenna performance, thus providing guidance for the design of power supply directly from the viewpoint of electromagnetic performance of array antenna.