High-Efficiency Wide-Angle Scanning Mechanoelectrical Hybrid Phased Array Antenna With Mechanically Reconfigurable Element Pattern

Abstract

In this paper, a high-efficiency wide-angle scanning mechanoelectrical hybrid phased array antenna with mechanical-ly reconfigurable element pattern is proposed. The proposed array is composed of several linear array panels, which can be mechanically rotated. In contrast to conventional hybrid scan-ning arrays, it rotates in the elevation plane with only three fixed states enabling quick beam switching capabilities, rather than constantly rotating in the azimuth plane. The optimal element's half power beam-width (HPBW) and panel rotation angle are examined in this paper to produce the best scanning range and gain performance in the rotation plane for the array. As a proto-type, an 8×8 array formed by an equivalent magnetic dipole patch antenna, whose HPBW is properly designed to satisfy the optimal value, is configured and fabricated. Both simulated and experimental results show that the proposed array can scan its main beam from -67° to 67° in the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">yoz</i> plane, -75° to 75° in the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">xoz</i> plane, and its 3-dB beam coverage reaches ±82°, ±90° in the two planes. Additionally, the peak efficiency of the array can reach 75%.