A Microstrip Patch Electronically Steerable Parasitic Array Radiator (ESPAR) Antenna With Reactance-Tuned Coupling and Maintained Resonance

Author

Luther, Justin J. ; Ebadi, Siamak ; Gong, Xun

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci. (EECS), Univ. of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando, FL, USA

Volume

60

Issue

4

fYear

2012

fDate

4/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1803

Lastpage

1813

Abstract

A new approach to parasitic phased-array antennas is presented. A symmetric two-layer, single-input inexpensive three-element array at 1-GHz employing varactors as tuning mechanisms are designed, fabricated, and measured. The driven element is mutually coupled to two parasitic elements in the H-plane. The varactors are used to control the mutual coupling and beam scanning and to maintain resonance at 1 GHz. A continuous scanning range of -15 + 15° is measured with maintained impedance matching and radiation pattern integrity. The low cost of diode varactors, used in place of expensive phase shifters, allows for more economic fabrication. This is advantageous to applications in point-to-point communication systems, weather, and target tracking radar systems.

Keywords

antenna radiation patterns; impedance matching; microstrip antenna arrays; microwave antenna arrays; phase shifters; radar tracking; target tracking; varactors; H-plane; beam scanning; diode varactors; electronically steerable parasitic array radiator; frequency 1 GHz; impedance matching; maintained resonance; microstrip patch ESPAR antenna; parasitic phased-array antennas; phase shifters; point-to-point communication systems; radiation pattern integrity; reactance-tuned coupling; single-input inexpensive three-element array; target tracking radar systems; Arrays; Capacitance; Couplings; Loading; Microstrip; Resonant frequency; Varactors; Beam steering; microstrip antennas; patch antenna; phased arrays;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-926X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TAP.2012.2186265

Filename

6142042