Reactively Loaded Dielectric-Based Antenna Arrays with Enhanced Bandwidth and Flat-Top Radiation Pattern Characteristics

• Published in: IEEE access Vol. 10; p. 1
• Main Authors: Maximidis, Ronis, Caratelli, Diego, Toso, Giovanni, Bart Smolders, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Antenna radiation patterns; Antennas; Arrays; Bandwidth; Bandwidths; Beamforming; Couplings; Dielectric; Dielectrics; flat-top; High gain; Linear polarization; Loaded antennas; loads; overlapping; passive; Radiation; Radiators; reactive; Short circuits; sub-array; Transmission line matrix methods; Waveguides
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3208954

This paper presents an antenna array organized in sub-arrays and composed of densely spaced dielectric-based radiating elements. To reduce the number of active components required in the array beamforming network, each sub-array consists of a single active element, directly fed, and several passive reactively loaded elements. State-of-the-art implementations of such arrays are typically based on rectangular air-filled waveguide radiators which provide a limited bandwidth and support a single linear polarization only. By utilizing the dielectric-based radiators presented in this work, a significant increase in the operating bandwidth of the array can be achieved. In this case, the aforementioned reactive loading is implemented through short-circuited dielectric-filled waveguides. By optimizing the position of the short circuits, the radiation pattern of the sub-array can be controlled and synthesized according to a given mask. To create a larger design flexibility, one can design the sub-array in the presence of the adjacent sub-arrays, so achieving their effective overlapping. By employing the considered design technique, a sub-array featuring flat-top radiation pattern characteristics in combination with low side-lobe levels and high gain was developed, manufactured, and thoroughly analyzed. An additional benefit of such design choice is the possibility of supporting two orthogonal polarizations.