A low‐profile wideband planar phased array of cavity‐backed slot microstrip elements for two‐dimensional beam scanning applications. Issue 3 (10th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Ya‐Bing; Zhang, Fu‐Shun; Zhao, Jiao‐Cheng; Liao, Yuan; Li, Ning
• Is Part Of: Microwave and optical technology letters. Volume 63:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 917
• Page End: 923
• Publication Date: 2020-10-10
• Subjects: cavity‐backed antenna -- low‐profile -- stacked microstrip antenna -- wideband phased array; Microwaves -- Periodicals; Optics -- Periodicals; 621
• DOI: 10.1002/mop.32689
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0895-2477

Abstract

Abstract: A low‐profile wideband planar phased array, working in X band and with two‐dimensional (2‐D) beam scanning characteristic is presented. In order to meet the requirements of wideband 2‐D beam scanning and low‐profile performance, a cavity‐backed slot stacked microstrip element is introduced. The array element is mainly composed of the open‐ended microstrip line printed on the bottom substrate, which backed by a rectangular metal cavity, and dual layer patches etched on the middle substrate and the top substrate, respectively. A vertical transition structure is used to feed the microstrip line and connect the active T/R module, which is similar to the coaxial probe. The thickness of the proposed element is only 4.5 mm (0.12 λ L, λ L is the wavelength of the lowest frequency). Based on the simulated design, an 8 × 8 planar phased array prototype has been fabricated and measured. The experimental results show that the proposed array have achieved the maximum scanning angle of ±45° in the H ‐plane and ± 30° in the E ‐plane across the frequency range of 8 ~ 12 GHz. Therefore, the proposed array can be used as a sub‐array of larger low‐profile wideband phased arrays for 2‐D beam scanning applications, and also validate the introduced design concept.