Compact, Cylinder Conformal Multi-Beam Antenna.

A four-beam slot array antenna, which has a cylinder conformal structure based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology, is designed and fabricated for the first time. Through the commercial software Microwave Studio Office CST optimization of the flat structure parameters, which are calculated using the planar SIW slots array antenna and Butler Matrix design method, the parameters of conformal structure are obtained. The fabricated phase array offers four beams with 16 dB gain at Ku band. The sweep range is around 160 degrees over azimuth direction. Meanwhile, the level of side lobes is reduced as low as -12 dB for all beam in E-plane. The usable bandwidth of the antenna is 3.5% at 11.5 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]