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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]

A novel design concept to reduce high H-plane cross-polarization of a shorted patch antenna (SPA) with broadside radiated patterns is presented by loading a pair of open-ended stubs. Initially, the nonbroadside $\vert E_{\mathrm {\theta }}\vert $ component of the traditional SPA at TM $_{\mathrm {1/2,2}}$ mode is demonstrated to be much larger than its broadside $\vert E_{\varphi }\vert $ component in H-plane or yoz plane radiation patterns. In order to maintain its peak radiation in the normal direction, the far-zone radiated fields of the antenna are theoretically studied and analyzed. The results demonstrate that the dual nodal lines of the TM $_{\mathrm {1/2,2}}$ modal fields could be gradually moved far away from each other by increasing the stub length. As such, its $\vert E_{\varphi }\vert $ and $\vert E_{\theta }\vert $ components in H-plane or yoz plane radiation patterns could be progressively strengthened and weakened, respectively. After that, by reallocating these dual nodal lines around the corners of the radiating patch, the nonbroadside radiated fields of TM1/2,2 mode are successfully transformed into the broadside radiation, while keeping a low H-plane cross-polarization level. Additionally, the symmetric open-ended stubs are folded so as to reduce the dimensions of the core radiator. In final, the proposed SPA is fabricated and measured. Simulated and measured results are found in good agreement with each other, and both of them illustrate that the antenna has satisfactorily acquired a normal radiation pattern at reshaped TM1/2,2 mode. Most importantly, its high H-plane cross-polarization is dramatically reduced from −4.3 to −21.4 dB as compared to the traditional SPA at TM1/2,0 mode. [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]

A wideband circularly polarized antenna with Γ-shaped feed is presented.The proposed antenna is formed by two shorted bowtie patch antennas and two L-shaped electric dipoles. It can achieve a measured impedance bandwidth for voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) ≤ 1.5 of 52% and a 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 55%. For the entire half-power beamwidth, the axial ratio can be kept below 3 dB. A prototype has been fabricated and tested, and the experimental results validate the design procedure. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:153-156, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26503 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]