Abstract
This article presents a novel low-profile ultra-wideband and wide-scanning array antenna using the transversely connected folded tightly coupled dipoles array (TCF-TCDA). The tightly coupled folded dipole arms are used to extend the operational frequency band with a simple feed structure. The capacitively-loaded metallic walls are adopted to move the problematic common-mode resonance out of the desired band and mitigate the bandwidth-limiting loop mode at the lower frequency, as well as reducing the weight and cost. A meta-surface-based wide angle impedance matching (MS-WAIM) layer is used to improve the beam scanning ability and lower the antenna profile, which consists of the star-shaped patches loaded on the dipole element. To demonstrate the wideband and wide scanning-range capability, a prototype is designed with an 8:1 bandwidth (0.41–3.3 GHz) at broadside, a scanning range of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm \mathrm{75}^{\circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula> from 0.5 to 3.25 GHz (6.5:1 bandwidth) in the E- and D-planes and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm \mathrm{50}^{\circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula> from 0.6 to 3.3 GHz (5.5:1 bandwidth) in the H-plane for active VSWR < 3.6. The proposed antenna has a very low profile, which is only <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.07\lambda _{\mathrm {low}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at the lowest operating frequency. A 16 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 16 array prototype is fabricated and measured. Experimental results show that the design and measurement results have good agreement. The proposed antenna has an ultra-wide bandwidth, a wide scanning range, a very compact size and a low cost, which is a good candidate for modern wireless system.
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