Effects due to Corporate Feed Network in a $16\times 16$ Element 24GHz Patch Antenna Array

Abstract

Effects of the feed network is an important factor in the radiation performance of a large antenna array. The design and development of a <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$16\times 16$</tex> element 24GHz printed planar patch antenna array is presented. A corporate feed network is adopted. Three different variants in the feed network viz., a) basic feed network, b) feed network with via fence and c) differential feed network with a 180° phase offset, are analyzed in terms of their corresponding effects in the radiation pattern and realized gain. Simulations show that the symmetric differential feed network has marginally better realized gain than the basic feed network, both with and without via fence.