Planar, Ultra-Wideband and Dual-Polarized Phased Array Antenna for Millimeter-Wave Vehicular Communication

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology Vol. 73; no. 7; pp. 9972 - 9983
• Main Authors: Bu, Dinuo, Qu, Shi-Wei, Yang, Shiwen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Antenna design; Antennas; Bandwidths; Dipole antennas; Dipoles; Dual polarization (waves); dual-polarized; Impedance matching; Metals; Millimeter wave; Millimeter waves; Phased arrays; Resonance; Surface impedance; Surface waves; Ultra wideband antennas; Ultrawideband; wide-angle scanning; wideband phased array
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2024.3364251

In this paper, a planar dual-polarized phased array based on modified tightly coupled dipoles is proposed with a 3.28:1 bandwidth up to the V band. To achieve the dual-polarized ultra-wideband operation in the millimeter-wave band, tightly coupled dipoles are adopted as the array elements. Moreover, based on resonance analysis, the dipole is elaborately designed as an arrowhead shape to shift a TE-mode resonance out of the operating band. Due to a pair of capacitive patches connected to the dipole feeding structure, the highest operating frequency increases significantly, which in turn broadens the antenna bandwidth. To achieve improved wide-angle scanning ability, a meta-surface wide-angle impedance matching (MS-WAIM) layer is employed. The surface waves guided by the MS-WAIM layer are suppressed by adding cross-shaped metal structures at the critical positions within the WAIM layer. Simulated results indicate that the proposed array can scan up to ±60 ° in E/H planes with active VSWRs < 3. An 8 × 8 array prototype is fabricated to validate the accuracy of this design. The proposed antenna is suitable for millimeter-wave vehicular communications.