Design of a 4x4 Square Microstrip Planar Array

Abstract

Wind profiling radars operating in Doppler beam swinging mode needs to have large antenna array in order to have a narrow beam for wind direction accuracy. To meet the above requirement, in the present work an array with 16 elements configured in a 4X4 square matrix is designed. The antenna inserted is a coaxial probe (Probe Feed) to the patch near its resonance in 'L' band is carried out. Principal plane 2-dimensional radiation patterns at 1.28GHz have been computed for single element and 4X4 planar arrays. The results of linearly polarized coaxial probe single element are generated by using IE3D software. Using this single element as basic building block, a2X2 and 4X4 planar arrays was designed. The results obtained are presented succinctly. The inferences from the design of coaxial probe antenna are presented. The Impedance Band-Width, 3-dB Beam Width and Gain for a single element as well as a 4X4 planar array are compared.