Ku-Band Dual Linear-Polarized 1-D Beam Steering Antenna Using Parabolic-Cylindrical Reflector Fed by a Phased Array Antenna

Abstract

We propose a 1D beam steering high gain hybrid reflector-phased array antenna system for enhanced data rate wireless communication at Ku -band (12 - 14 GHz). The proposed hybrid antenna system consists of a ${D}$ = 50 cm offset parabolic-cylindrical reflector with ${f}/{D} = 0.4$ fed by an $8\times4$ dual linear-polarized stacked patch phased array antenna placed along the focal line of the reflector. The parabolic-cylindrical reflector has the property of a wide-angle beam steering along the cylindrical axis as compared to a conventional parabolic reflector. A complete implementation of the dual linear-polarized phased array antenna with the silicon RFIC chipset based beamforming network and integrated with aluminum offset parabolic-cylindrical reflector is reported. Cavity model and physical optics approximations are used to analyze the radiation characteristics of the phased array and the induced currents on the parabolic-cylindrical reflector surface, respectively. Furthermore, the multilevel fast multipole method (MLFMM) is used along with the method of moments (MoM) in TICRA GRASP for a comprehensive analysis of the proposed hybrid reflector system. The peak directivity of the reflector pattern is around 27 dBi for both the X-polarization and Y-polarization, and a beam scanning of ±30° is achieved along the cylindrical axis of the reflector for 3 dB reduction in the gain. The analytical and computed results of the proposed hybrid reflector-phased array antenna system are experimentally verified.