Search

In this letter, a wideband two-dimensional (2-D) scanning multibeam array antenna is proposed using a novel beamforming network (BFN). First, a novel three-beam Butler matrix (BM) network, as the core of the BFN, is proposed and described. The BM network comprises a directional coupler, T-shaped power dividers, and coupling baluns, which avoids using crossovers and lossy lumped elements as in a conventional BM network. In addition, a dual-stripline structure is employed to combine multiple components, which considerably reduces the BM network aperture. Then, six three-beam BMs are stacked and interconnected to form a complete 2-D BFN, whose scanning features of two orthogonal planes are controlled by two sets of BMs. Finally, to verify the working principle of the BFN, a 3 × 3 all-metal antenna array is designed and combined with the BFN. Notably, the low-profile antenna element achieves a wide operating bandwidth of 34.5%. Furthermore, a prototype is fabricated and tested, which shows that the antenna realizes switched beams in nine directions, indicating that an excellent 2-D scanning function is realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a wideband circularly polarised antenna array consisting of a 10‐element ellipse dipole antenna and a feed network. A metal pillar is vertically loaded at the end of each ellipse dipole arm to extend the current path, thereby reducing the lateral dimension of the antenna element. For uniform coverage over the Earth's surface, antenna with an isoflux pattern is required due to its uniform power density over a wide coverage area. To obtain wideband and isoflux characteristics, the amplitude and phase distributions along the network are optimised by applying the hybrid of the genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimisation. Particularly, the feed network with broadband phase shifting performance is designed to attain a broad bandwidth requirement. The proposed antenna can achieve excellent impedance matching and axial ratio characteristics from 1.1 to 1.6 GHz. In addition, the isoflux radiation pattern is obtained with the beamwidth of ±21° where the gain is higher than 0 dBi in the elevation plane (xoz‐Plane). The realised gain is better than 10.2 dBi and the side lobes are below −14.2dB across the operating frequency. Finally, the antenna array is manufactured and measured, and good agreement is achieved between the simulation and measurement results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an offset reflector antenna with dual-beam and dual-polarization characteristics is developed to provide the angular diversity function for troposcatter communication system. The antenna system consists of a parabolic reflector and a dual-beam feed. For the dual-beam feed, two identical Ku-band feed elements are arranged side by side to generate two beams toward the reflector. The two beams are substantially nonoverlapping. The feed element is composed of a dielectric rod, a square waveguide, and an ortho-mode transducer. The dielectric rod is effective in reducing the beamwidth of the feed and providing more tapered illumination on the reflector in order to increase the antenna gain. Moreover, the developed antenna is able to produce two independent beams with the vertical and horizontal polarizations. The antenna was fabricated and tested with good agreement between the simulation and measurement results. The measured voltage standing wave ratios of the four feed ports are less than 1.5:1, and the beam separation angle is not more than 0.7° or about one time half-power beamwidth, and the antenna gain is higher than 45 dBi over the operating band from 14.5 to 15.35 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A planar Rotman lens antenna that generates multiple beams is presented over a wide angular range. The proposed multi‐beam antenna consists of a Rotman lens and a ten‐element printed Yagi antenna array. By properly comparing optical aberrations, expressing as the normalized path length errors Δl, the suitable ratio of on‐axis to off‐axis focal length (g = G/F) is acquired so as to minimize phase errors for the array elements. Ten dummy ports are employed to reduce the performance deterioration caused by energy reflection. A prototype with seven input ports was fabricated and measured, covering a wide scanning angle of 60° (–30°, 30°). The measured beam patterns show that the seven beam gains are distributed from 11.9 to 13.6 dBi under operating of 8.15 GHz. Both the simulated and measured results are used to verify the design approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel wideband circularly polarized (CP) antenna is presented in this article. The proposed antenna consists of a four-leaf clover patch, four L-probes, and wideband networks. Based on the tightly coupled mechanism, the four L-probes are formed as a ring with the adjacent ones kept close for strong mutual coupling. Consequently, the proposed antenna realizes a wideband impedance matching. Meanwhile, the four-leaf clover patch is put closely inside of the ring for further improving the impedance bandwidth, which is proximity-coupled fed by the four sequential-rotation L-probes with phase of 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°. The four L-probes are connected to the respective ports of a wideband feeding network by a two-stage impedance transforming network. The measured results indicate that the proposed design has an impedance bandwidth of 66.7% from 1.0 to 2.0 GHz for VSWR ≤ 2 and a 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 56.5% from 1.08 to 1.93 GHz. Furthermore, in the operating bandwidth, stable and symmetry radiation patterns and high gain are obtained. The design has a 3-dB gain bandwidth of 38% from 1.3 to 1.9 GHz with a peak gain of 8.5 dBic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]