Probe‐fed dipole antenna with parasitic patches for wideband and wide‐scanning planar phased arrays

Abstract A probe‐fed dipole antenna with parasitic patches is proposed in this study as the element for wideband and wide‐scanning planar‐phased arrays. Parasitic patches are used to realize wideband performance by significantly reducing the active input impendence. The printed dipole antenna with parasitic patches is directly matched with the subminiature version A (SMA) connector through the modified probe structure. The cell size is 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.145 λhigh3. The planar and low‐profile characteristics make it suitable for modular phased array applications. It is shown that the infinite array simulation results achieve 45.2% bandwidth (7.86–12.45 GHz) with active voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) < 2 at broadside, 60° scans in E‐, D‐planes and 50° scan in H‐plane. An 8 × 8 prototype array has been manufactured and measured to validate the proposed design and the active element patterns agree well with simulation results.