Effects of bending a planar antenna array on its scan performance

The effects of cylindrically bending of a linear planar antenna array is investigated in order to improve the scan range for 60 GHz indoor applications. The scan range of the bent antenna array can be significantly increased by a proper choice of the array bending angle, antenna element number, and element beamwidth. A bent array based on the BFACP antenna is presented as an example. With the use of an appropriate rectangular array configuration instead of a linear array, the array form factor can be reduced and the array beamwidth can be controlled according to the design requirements while keeping the scan range enhancement provided by bending the array.