Yu.A. Komarov, A.V. Olkhovsky, I.A. Yakovlev

For the monopulse radar systems with phase direction finding (DF) in azimuth and elevation planes the variant of array antenna application is considered. The considered array consists of four in-phase arrays and a sum-difference converter and uses a switching signal division in DF planes and a mixing of sum-difference channel signals in two types of sum-difference devices: a 2T-bridge and a quadrature bridge. Amplitude and phase signal distortions in the feeder path channels, which result in the changes of phase DF characteristics and it's slope are described analytically. The analysis and the quantity estimations of the factors, which decrease the DF characteristic's slope and lower the antenna bandwidth were made. That analysis had allowed to formulate the approach to monopulse antennas phase tuning, which is significantly different from the traditional one. It is much more informative and less costly, so is promising for the serial-produced antennas. The parts of the tuning technology, which include the array antenna's special excitation device's usage, are discussed. It is noted, that the technology found it's place during the phase tuning of the serial-produced monopulse antennas of several types and different frequency ranges.