A Wideband Low-Profile Tightly Coupled Antenna Array with a Very High Figure of Merit

Alpha O. Bah, Pei Yuan Qin, Richard W. Ziolkowski, Y. Jay Guo, Trevor S. Bird

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

85 Scopus citations

Abstract

A wideband, low-profile, tightly coupled antenna array with a simple feed network is presented. The dipole and feed networks in each unit cell are printed on both sides of a single RT/Duroid 6010 substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 10.2. The feed network, composed of meandered impedance transformer and balun sections, is designed based on Klopfenstein tapered microstrip lines. The wide-angle impedance matching is empowered by a novel wideband metasurface superstrate. For the optimum design, scanning to 70° along the E-plane is obtained together with a very high array figure of merit P A = 2.84. The H-plane scan extends to 55°. The broadside impedance bandwidth is 5.5:1 (0.80-4.38) GHz with an active voltage standing-wave ratio value ≤2. The overall height of the array above the ground plane is 0.088λ L, where λ L is the wavelength at the lowest frequency of operation. A prototype was fabricated and tested to confirm the design concepts.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number8605378
Pages (from-to)2332-2343
Number of pages12
JournalIEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
Volume67
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2019

Keywords

  • Bandwidth
  • figure of merit
  • metasurface (MS)
  • phased arrays
  • tightly coupled (TC) arrays
  • ultrawideband arrays
  • wide-angle impedance matching (WAIM)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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