Ku / E dual‐band shared‐aperture antenna array for phased array applications

Abstract

This article presents a dual-band shared-aperture antenna array for a phased array system operating in the Ku/E-bands with a large frequency ratio. A regular array arrangement is used to arrange single-layer coupled microstrip patch elements that operate in the Ku-band. E-band elements using slot-coupled microstrip patch antennas are arranged in a sparse concentric circular array configuration. In addition, E-band transceiver/receiver (T/R) chips are attached to the back of the array's multilayer printed-circuit board (PCB) to achieve high density with a low-profile. In the shared-aperture of the proposed antenna array, there are 64 elements in both Ku-and E-bands. According to the results of our experiments, the Ku-band array has a large scanning angle spanning from À45 to +45 with low gain drop and sidelobe level (SLL). It also exhibits a comparatively wide impedance bandwidth of 17.8% in the frequency range of 14.65-17.51 GHz. The E-band array has a scanning angle of about ±20 in both the E-and H-planes and a 7.7% simulated impedance bandwidth covers the frequency range of 75.8-81.9 GHz.