Full-space scanning phased array system for future integrated high data rate communication over E-band and beyond

A technique for achieving simultaneous multiple scanned directional beams is introduced in the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology. In the first part, a two-port leaky-wave antenna (LWA) having broad-side radiating characteristics from −30° to +30° scan angle with 45° polarization is proposed. The phase scanning principle of beam forming network (BFN) and the frequency scanning principle of LWA are both utilized to implement 2-D scan multi-beam antenna (MBA) array. In the second part, two layer Butler matrix based BFN is proposed to extend the 2-D MBA capability to operate as simultaneous two-way transmit or two-way receive MBA array. In this configuration, one of the beams is dedicated for transmit operation while the other beam is dedicated for receive operation simultaneously. In the third part, beam scanning range is further extended to cover full-plane region by placing two independent MBAs orthogonal to each other. The proposed and demonstrated E-band phased array system can be used in future intelligent communication or transportation system. This concept can easily be scalable up to W-band frequency range and beyond.