A reconfigurable MEMS beam steering array (RMBSA) antenna for smart RADAR application

A reconfigurable MEMS beam steering array (RMBSA) antenna for smart radar application is proposed. The RMBSA antenna is designed with a coaxial probe technique as the medium to feed the current to the centre of the RMBSA antenna before the current is shared out to the radiating elements. This research successfully invented beam steering capability by using Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) as an RF switch mechanism. The RF switches that implemented on the RMBSA antenna are without any additional circuit. This antenna design is potentially to steer in three different beam angles of -3°, 0° and 3° respectively. On the other hand, the proposed antenna also effective to maintain the gain in the range of 5.28 dB up to 5.39 dB at all capable angles on single operating frequency of 9.41 GHz. Dimension wise, 32.451 mm × 69.845 mm designed using FR4 with dielectric constant of □_r= 4.7 as a substrate, the antenna is suitable to be implemented for a smart antenna system and radar in the future.