A Microwave/Millimeter Wave Dual-Band Shared Aperture Patch Antenna Array

Zongxin Wang,Zeqin Huang

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3040250

Zongxin Wang, Zeqin Huang

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3040250

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Abstract

This paper describes the design of microwave/millimeter wave dual-band patch antenna array with shared aperture. The antenna array is designed of stack structure of three printed circuit boards. The Ka-band patches are fed directly with microstrip lines of the Ka-band power divider network and the E-band patches are coupling fed by the E-band power divider network through slots cut in the antenna ground. An antenna unit is studied, fabricated and measured firstly to verify the feasibility of the shared aperture structure. Finally, a shared aperture antenna array consists of a $2\times 4$ Ka-band array and an $8\times 16$ E-band array is designed based on the antenna unit. The E-band and the Ka-band feeding network are carefully designed to reduce the reflections, and the Ka-band feeding network combines series feed and parallel feed in order to save space. The shared aperture antenna array is fabricated and measured, and the results are presented. In order to measure the E-band array, the main port of the E-band power divider is connected to a standard WR12 waveguide through an antipodal fin-line waveguide to microstrip transition.

Highlights

With the rapid development of communication technology, antennas operating at different frequencies are required
Most of the shared aperture antennas are based on printed circuit board (PCB) technology, which is cost effective, while waveguide antennas are bulky and difficult to manufacture and are especially difficult to use in a phased array feed
In addition to the dual-band antenna with two patch combination types, there is another dual-band antenna that uses both patches and slots as radiators [11], where each patch radiator works in the low-frequency band and the slots etched on each patch are used as high-frequency radiators

Summary

INTRODUCTION

With the rapid development of communication technology, antennas operating at different frequencies are required. Most of the shared aperture antennas are based on printed circuit board (PCB) technology, which is cost effective, while waveguide antennas are bulky and difficult to manufacture and are especially difficult to use in a phased array feed. C/L-, C/Xor S/X-band shared-aperture microstrip patch antennas are often reported to be dual-band or multiband antennas [5,6,7,8,9,10], as it is relatively easier to arrange patches of higher and lower frequency due to the even ratio between higher and lower operating frequencies and because it is relatively easier to arrange the feed lines due to their lower operating frequencies. A shared-aperture microwave/millimeter wave dual-band microstrip patch antenna array is studied. Four E-band parasitic patches and a Ka-band patch are printed on the top of the PCB 1, the Ka-band patch has four square perforations where the E-band parasitic patches are set; four E-band driven patches are printed at the back side of PCB1, and the stacked structure of E-band parasitic and driven patches is used to broaden the band width of the antenna [14]; the ground plane and the E-band feed network are printed on the top and back of PCB 3 respectively; the E-band patches are fed by the microstrip line network coupling through slots on the ground plane at the top of PCB 3; PCB2 is a bare board whose primary role is to support PCB1

Impedance matching line

Parameter symbol

Sum port

Matching segments

Simulated Measured

Conclusion