Wide band wide scan low cross‐polarised grooved tapered slot antenna array

Abstract

The present study proposes a new geometry of tapered slot antenna (TSA), called as a grooved TSA ( GTSA ). The antenna is designed to operate in L-band for phased array applications. The topology of TSA's fins is modified by introducing electrically thin grooves, which split fins into separate sections, electromagnetically coupled to each other. The motive behind this modification is to reduce high cross-polarisation (x-pol) level in the radiation pattern of TSAs by altering the flow of surface currents intelligently. The design and optimisation are done using commercial FEM solver, HFSS . Furthermore, an embedded performance of GTSA in 7 × 7 elements array is presented. The mutual coupling between the array elements is minimised by the introduction of metallic baffles parallel to H -plane. GTSA demonstrates a fractional bandwidth of 0.58 illustrating a reflection coefficient <;-10 dB, half power beam width not less than 120° and 90° in E - and H -planes, respectively. It demonstrates an x-pol level <;-20 dB at the extreme scan angles (up to 60°) from the broad side. The GTSA array demonstrates a wide scan performance up to 60° from the broad side. The present work is extremely useful in the realisation of active-phased array radars.