Title

A Low-Cost 2 × 2 Planar Array Of Three-Element Microstrip Electrically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiator (Espar) Subcells

Keywords

Antenna feed circuits; array antenna theory; beam forming; L-band; microstrip antennas; microwave circuits; phased arrays

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° to +20° 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.

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Publication Title

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

Volume

62

Issue

10

Number of Pages

2325-2336

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2014.2345335

Socpus ID

85027940108 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85027940108

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