A Low-Cost 2 x 2 Planar Array of Three-Element Microstrip Electrically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiator (ESPAR) Subcells

    Authors

    J. J. Luther; S. Ebadi;X. Gong

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech.

    Keywords

    Antenna feed circuits; array antenna theory; beam forming; L-band; microstrip antennas; microwave circuits; phased arrays; ANTENNA; Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

    Abstract

    A low-cost electrically scanned phased array utilizing microstrip patch electrically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) subarray cells is presented for the first time. Four single-layer three-element ESPAR subarray cells at one-wavelength spacing are uniformly illuminated by a corporate feed network consisting of microstrip Wilkinson power dividers and ring hybrids. The array is scanned using a combination of ESPAR capacitive mutual coupling control and microstrip switched delay line phase shifters at the subarray level to achieve a scanning range from -20 degrees to +20 degrees while maintaining high return loss. The ESPAR coupling technique allows a 50% reduction in the number of phase shifters used by utilizing a full wavelength subcell spacing, resulting in excellent performance with inexpensive fabrication. The fabricated prototype exhibits boresight gain of 12.1 dBi with low scan loss and 7.0-dB worst case sidelobe level. The array is compared quantitatively to thinned arrays with and without parasitic elements to illustrate this advantageous technique. A functional prototype is fabricated and measured and is aptly predicted by the full-wave model.

    Journal Title

    Ieee Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

    Volume

    62

    Issue/Number

    10

    Publication Date

    1-1-2014

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    2325

    Last Page

    2336

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000344990600012

    ISSN

    0018-9480

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