Design of compact phased array antennas with shaped pattern

Planar phased array antennas have been implemented. The current distribution of element antenna in azimuth plane, which is scan plane, adopted Taylor distribution. Optimizing method is used to design the current distribution of array antenna elements in the elevation, which is non-scan plane, in terms of the pattern shaping requirements. 4-bit digital phase shifters are used to control the scanning-beam at a rate of 20000 deg·s-1 with intervals of 0.2 deg in a range of ± 4 0deg on the azimuth. The measurement results show that the gain is 25dB. On the azimuth, half power beamwidth is 2.9 deg, sidelobe level is lower than -20dB and half power beamwidth is less than 3.9 deg in ± 4 0 deg scanning range. On non-scan plane, the elevation, the half power beamwidth of the pattern shaping is 11 deg, the sharp cutoff on the horizon is 5.6dB·deg-1, the sidelobe level is less -20dB. The size of the phased array antennas is 38% smaller than regular ones. It has the characteristic of compact size, light weight, and good mobility.