Design of K-Band printed array antenna for SATCOM applications

This paper presents the design of 256 (16 times 16) elements planar microstrip array antenna at K-band frequencies using corporate feeding network. The array antenna has been designed and developed for miniaturized satellite communication (SATCOM) ground terminals. The impedance bandwidth achieved for VSWR Lt 2.0 is 540 MHz (~ 2.7%). The achieved mid-band gain of the array antenna is about 29 dBi and E & H-Plane 3-dB beamwidths are 4.5deg each. The measured sidelobes level for the array is better than 12 dB. Overall efficiency of antenna array is about 50%. The array antenna was developed using the MIC photolithography technique on the 30 mil (0.757 mm) RT - Duroid 5880 (epsiv_r = 2.22) dielectric substrate.