Microstrip tapered traveling wave antenna for wide range of beam scanning in X‐ and Ku‐bands

Abstract

In this work, a broadband traveling wave antenna (TWA) is presented as a microstrip design that is capable of a wide range of beam scanning by changing the operation frequency within 8 to 14 GHz. For this purpose, a rhombus shaped microstrip patch is used as a unit element and TWA is built as a tapered microstrip line consisting of the cascaded rhombus shaped unit elements and terminated by a rectangular antenna instead of traditional resistive termination which can be called patch loaded traveling wave antenna (PLTWA). Optimization and simulation of the PLTWA is carried out using 3‐D Microwave simulation software CST and its dimensions are resulted as 130 × 30 mm. From the simulations, it should be noted that the patch termination increases the maximum gain almost 3 dB and the total efficiency up to 90% compared to the traditional resistive load over the operation band at the expanse of a small distortion on S11 characteristics. Then the PLTWA is fabricated and measured along its operation band 8 to 14 GHz and it exhibits a peak gain of 9.5 dBi at 11 GHz. The measured gain of the proposed antenna is found between 9 dB and 12 dB and its beam direction is steerable with the range of 80° (−65°‐15°) over the operation band 8 to 14°GHz.

On Decomposition-Based Surrogate-Assisted Optimization of Leaky Wave Antenna Input Characteristics for Beam Scanning Applications

“…Thus, the proposed method can be used not only for computationally efficient surrogate modelling but it can also be used to realize stop band suppression within the limits of unit element and array design for the selected operation bands. Furthermore, Table 5 provides performance comparison with state-of-the-art designs [19], [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. As it can be observed, although the radiation performance of the considered LWA is inferior compared to some of the designs reported therein, it should be noted that the size of the array of Fig.…”

“…Leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) typically consist of openended lines connected to ground. In these architectures, the radiating characteristic is mainly controlled by a travelling wave on a guiding structure, with the surface current being a superposition of electromagnetic waves traveling in the opposite directions [19]. A conceptual illustration of LWA has been shown in Fig.…”

“…TWA designs are based on the traditional microstrip array antennas as proposed by W. Menzel in 1979 [18]. Their advantages include simple topology, low profile, and easy impedance matching [19].…”

Microstrip leaky wave antenna for wide range of beam scanning in X band

“…The direction in which the energy is radiated from a leaky wave antenna θ is determined by the phase constant, β, of the leaky wave along the transmission line, which is function the operating frequency. A general schematic of LWA is presented Figure 1(A) 30 …”

Beamsteering antennas using liquid crystals for 5G applications

“…The pattern formed depends on design of both radiating part and matched impedance. [24] In [26], a travelling wave antenna is designed using a loading technique called patch loading, and the design is called the patch loaded TWA, or PLTWA. It consists of using a conventional TWA feed with a rectangular patch used in place of resistance to match its impedence.…”