Abstract
In this paper, an innovative patch antenna optimally designed for phase-only beam shaping is presented. The radiating element generates a circularly polarized field and exhibits two separate operative frequency bands. The element is center-fed by a pin connected to the beam forming network (BFN) layer. This unique feature allows us to generate any given phase distribution by simply proportionally rotating the radiating elements with respect to their feeding points. An effective phase-only synthesis method is also illustrated, which takes into account the radiating element rotations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, two linear arrays for global coverage have been designed, specifically operating in the E1 and E6 frequency bands of the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Galileo. The two presented antennas performance have been verified with full-wave simulations, showing excellent agreement with theoretical results and, therefore, confirming the effectiveness of the presented design approach.
Highlights
Linear and planar arrays are extensively used in a wide variety of applications, because they are able to guarantee several advantages, such as the flat profile, the light weight and the beam shaping flexibility
An effective phase-only synthesis method is illustrated, which takes into account the radiating element rotations
This paper presents a novel dual-band circularly polarized center-fed patch antenna suitable for the implementation of arrays where beam shaping, based on a phase-only synthesis, is obtained with radiating element rotation
Summary
Linear and planar arrays are extensively used in a wide variety of applications, because they are able to guarantee several advantages, such as the flat profile, the light weight and the beam shaping flexibility. A simple yet effective technique to achieve a desired beam shape exploiting the physical rotation of the radiating elements around their center axis is proposed. More recently [6], the same approach was adopted, employing a 3-element sequentially rotated array as a single element in a larger array In both papers [5,6], the radiating element operates on a single frequency band. To the authors’ best knowledge, there is no documented solution in the literature employing a center-fed patch antenna with rotation feature capabilities, and there is no prior art on dual-band array antennas based on this phase shifting method. This paper presents a novel dual-band circularly polarized center-fed patch antenna suitable for the implementation of arrays where beam shaping, based on a phase-only synthesis, is obtained with radiating element rotation. The radiating element and arrays have been designed and validated using the commercial electromagnetic solver CST Microwave Studio, while the phase-only synthesis algorithm has been implemented in MATLAB
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