Antenna Arrays for RF-MEMS based 77 GHz On-Board Wake Vortex Detection Sensor

In this paper the first generation of transmit and receive antennas for an on-board wake vortex detection front end module at 76.5 GHz is presented. The antennas are realized with serially fed patch antenna arrays connected in parallel by a corporate feed network. The use of RF-MEMS phase shifters between the feed network and the 2D patch antenna arrays will, in a future integration step, allow for steering the receive antenna beam in discrete steps in the horizontal plane. The principle of operation of the front end module and the design of both antennas are described. Simulated and measured results are presented to validate the design.