The effect of isolation loss towards the beam steering of a parasitic patch array antenna

This paper investigates the effect of isolation loss (ISO) towards the beam steering capability of a parasitic patch array antenna. Parasitic patch antenna is mainly used to steer the main beam towards a desired direction and suppress the signal in unwanted directions. In such a scenario, the ability to steer the beam with reduced side lobe level is considered important to enhance the signal reception while minimizing the unwanted signals such as interference and noise. The investigations carried out in this work explore the insight of the RF switch in order to achieve the beam steering with minimized side lobe level. A three element parasitic patch antenna is designed to achieve beam steering at -30°, 0° and 30°, with minimized side lobe level deployed with the suitable choice of RF switch. Through the investigations conducted in this work, it has been identified that increased ISO at OFF state of the RF switch improves the performance of beam steering.