Abstract
This article presents a high-performance fully metallic dual-polarized wideband Vivaldi array for the $Ka$ -band (26–40 GHz), which is going to be used, for example, in 5G millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication networks. Antenna-array elements are fed straight from a single printed circuit board (PCB) that allows integrating active components in the immediate proximity of antenna elements. A whole array can be placed on a PCB as a through-hole or surface-mount technology component. The antenna is simulated in a unit cell with periodic boundary conditions and in an $8\times8$ array configuration. The simulations show that the active reflection coefficient is below −10 dB across the entire $Ka$ -band and throughout most of the beam-steering angles up to ±60°. Lower than 3 dB scan loss is achieved in approximately ±60° range in the elementary planes and ±50° in the diagonal planes. The reflection coefficient and gain of each of the four elements in different parts of the manufactured dual-polarized $8\,\,\times8$ array were measured and simulated with the remaining elements terminated with a $50~\Omega $ load. The measured results follow closely the full-wave finite array simulation results; the reflection coefficient is low and the element pattern is wide over the entire frequency range.
Highlights
P HASED arrays have long been used in radar, sensor, and communication applications where electrical beam steering or beamforming is more beneficial compared to fixed aperture and mechanical steering
This article is organized as follows: the antenna element structure and its simulated performance are presented in Section II; the manufacturing methods, the manufactured antenna structure, and the measurement setup are presented in Section III; followed by the measurement results, a comparison to simulation results, and a discussion about the results in Section IV; and Section V concludes this article
The active reflection coefficient in the unit-cell simulation is better than −10 dB through most of the steering and frequency range
Summary
P HASED arrays have long been used in radar, sensor, and communication applications where electrical beam steering or beamforming is more beneficial compared to fixed aperture and mechanical steering. The Vivaldi antennas do not suffer from surface waves like many microstrip antennas do They can have a very wide bandwidth, even up to 12:1 [12], making them ideal for wideband phased arrays. The small size of the antenna element limits the realization of the antenna, especially the feed structure, increasing the importance of the single-piece design and low complexity of the array. The presented antenna array covers the entire K a-band with a simple single-element structure and an integrated coaxial feed. To the authors’ knowledge, the presented antenna structure is the first published Vivaldi element design with measurement data covering the whole K a-band and having a beam-steering capability of up to ±60◦, with no large variation in the co-pol pattern. This article is organized as follows: the antenna element structure and its simulated performance are presented in Section II; the manufacturing methods, the manufactured antenna structure, and the measurement setup are presented in Section III; followed by the measurement results, a comparison to simulation results, and a discussion about the results in Section IV; and Section V concludes this article
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