The Utilization of Backgrounds as Radiating Elements to Construct Multibeam Radial Line Slot Array (RLSA) Antennas

Abstract

RLSA antennas normally have a single beam produced by slots installed on their radiating element. A technique was, therefore, introduced in this study to optimally design multibeam RLSA antennas. This involved the utilization of the antennas' background to radiate signals by installing slots on it just like the radiating element to ensure the creation of multibeam after which the effects of this method such as signal flow disturbances and gain reduction were discussed. Moreover, 105 multibeam RLSA models were designed and simulated to verify the technique developed after which a prototype of the best model was fabricated and measured to verify the simulation. The result showed it is possible to obtain multibeam antennas with similar symmetry in terms of beamwidth and directions. Furthermore, the gain recorded for beams 1,2,3, and 4 was 8.28 dBi, 6.28 dBi, 6.38 dBi, and 8.18 dBi respectively, and were averagely about 6 dB lower than the value for single beam RLSA antennas, therefore, they suit the theory of beam splitting. The antennas were also found to have more than enough bandwidth and good reflection coefficient and the technique's validity was verified by a strong agreement between the simulation and measurement results.

Dual beam half Radial Line Slot Array (RLSA) antennas

“…The extreme beamsquint technique has also been recently applied to design multibeam RLSA antennas as indicated by the development of both dual and triple beam RLSA antennas in (Purnamirza et al 2021b). The study designed some slot groups corresponding to the number of beams, for example, three slot groups were used to obtain three beams as indicated in Figure 1a (Purnamirza et al 2021c).…”

“…The similarity between 18 and 19 is that they both studied multibeam RLSAs using full circle RLSA antennas. This present study was, therefore, conducted to continue the development of multibeam antennas in line with the methods applied in (Purnamirza et al 2021b) and (Purnamirza et al 2021c) but through the application of half RLSA antennas. This is intended to ensure this model of antennas can be designed for small Wi-Fi devices.…”