Series Feed Network Research Articles

Gain Enhancement of Microstrip Patch Array Antennas Using Two Metallic Plates for 24 GHz Radar Applications

In this paper, a method of enhancing gain in a microstrip patch array antenna using two metallic plates for 24 GHz radar applications is presented. A 4 × 1 linear microstrip square patch array antenna covering the 24.0 to 24.25 GHz frequency range and using a shunt-connected series feed network with a tapered power distribution was first designed with a measured maximum gain of 9.8 dBi and dimensions of 30 mm × 12 mm. Two metallic plates were appended along the array axis of the antenna to double the gain in the 4 × 1 array antenna. Effects on performance from varying the tilting angle and length of the metallic plates, such as the input reflection coefficient, the radiation patterns, and gain, were investigated through simulation. Gain enhancement in the 4 × 1 patch array antenna with metallic plates was highest when the tilting angle was around 70∘, and gain kept increasing as the length of the metallic plates increased. A prototype of the 4 × 1 patch array antenna was fabricated with plates at a tilting angle of 70∘, a length of 50 mm, and a measured maximum gain of 16.8 dBi. Therefore, a gain enhancement of about 7 dB was achieved by adding the metallic plates along the array axis of the 4 × 1 patch array antenna.

A wideband low‐profile dual‐polarized wide beam‐width antenna

A wideband and wide beam-width dual-polarization with a low-profile and simple structure is presented in this letter. The proposed antenna comprises two pairs of bending plates, the feed part that includes the probe and the copper disk, and two series of feeding networks. A couple of the bending plates can be used to form the horizontal and vertical currents to broaden the antenna's beam width. To radiate a symmetrical wide beam pattern, a series feeding network is applied to guarantee a symmetrical current distribution on the bending plates. Therefore, the proposed wide beam capability has been analyzed and verified with a dual-polarization antenna. A low-profile dual-polarization antenna is demonstrated, which can realize the half-power beam-width more than 180° and 100° in the E- and H-plane in the whole operating frequency band (22.3%), respectively. Furthermore, the port isolation is lower than −35 dB in the most frequency band. The prototype is fabricated and characterized, yielding good performance within the overall operational bandwidth. The measured results align very well with the simulated results. The proposed wideband antenna is a promising candidate for wireless communication systems because of the dual-polarization and wide beam-width.

W‐band ridge gap waveguide slot array antenna with low sidelobe and high‐gain characteristics

AbstractIn this letter, a W‐band slot array antenna based on ridge gap waveguide (RGW) with low sidelobe and high‐gain characteristics has been proposed. It adopts a series and parallel hybrid feeding network to realize low sidelobe levels in E‐ and H‐plane, respectively. The tunable pins and large power ratio dividers are introduced in the distribution network, which improves the phase consistency and brings flexibility to amplitude‐tapering. The proposed antenna overcomes the shortcomings of grating lobes caused by quasi‐Taylor distribution of conventional slot array with backed cavities. The prototype of a 16 × 18 slot array is fabricated and measured. The measured impedance bandwidth is from 81.2 to 86 GHz, and the peak gain is higher than 29.4 dBi with the sidelobe levels (SLLs) of −19.7 dB and −30 dB on E‐ and H‐plane, respectively.

Dual Frequency Millimeter-Wave Perturbed Ring Patch Antenna Array for 5G Applications

A dual-band antenna array has been reported in this paper working in the fundamental mode of TM11 resonance for 5G communication. Rogers Rt/Duroid 5880 as dielectric substrate having a height of 0.508 mm has been chosen for the proposed antenna. A single element ring patch antenna has been developed by etching circular slots at different angles i.e. 0°, 90°, and 180° making it perturbed which resonates at 28 GHz providing an impedance bandwidth of 4% by exciting two resonant modes making it novel. Further, to cultivate the gain, a four-element antenna array is evolved by utilizing series-feed network due to which the flux linkage of the radiating element combines with the conductive behaviour of the feed network resulting an extra resonance at 36 GHz providing reflection coefficient of more than –20 dB at both resonating frequencies. By constructing an array, the antenna gain gets doubled along with a 1% increase in impedance bandwidth at 28 GHz. By considering the various electromagnetic parameters, a detailed analysis has been done using CST MW studio ver.2018. Further, to authenticate the result of the reported antenna array, the antenna has been fabricated as well as tested using VNA which shows close resemblance with simulated antenna characteristics.

Compact Omnidirectional Millimeter-Wave Antenna Array Fed in Series by a Novel Feed Network

In this article, a novel substrate integrated waveguide power divider is proposed to feed antenna array elements in series. This feed network inherently provides uniform output power to eight quadrupole antennas. More importantly, it leads to a compact configuration since the feed network can be integrated inside the elements without increasing the array size. Its design procedure is first discussed. Next, the series feed network was used to feed a novel compact omnidirectional antenna array. Targeting the fifth-generation (5G) 26 GHz millimeter-wave (mm-wave) band, the simulated results showed that the proposed array exhibits a broad impedance bandwidth of 4.15 GHz and a high gain of 13.6 dBi. A prototype was fabricated and measured, exhibiting a measured impedance bandwidth of 6.72 GHz and a gain of 12.3 dBi. Its attractive features indicate that the proposed antenna array is well suitable for millimeter-wave wireless communication systems.

Performance Analysis of Microstrip Antenna with Several Feed Networks for Satellite Communication

The modern wireless communication systems demand significantly higher bandwidth with a highly directive antenna for better performance. For this purpose, the feed networks such as Series Feed (SF), Corporate Feed (CF), and Corporate-Series Feed Network (CSFN) in the design of antennas play a vital role. Therefore, in this paper, rectangular microstrip antennas with inner ring slot, two semi-circular slots on both sides of the microstrip, and two director elements have been designed. The proposed antennas in four sets with different shapes for satellite communication operate at the Ku-band frequency. In this design, copper (annealed) has been used as material for the ground plane. The substrate material of this proposed antenna is Rogers RT5880, with a dielectric constant at 2.2. Moreover, the probe feed technique has been used in this antenna, further followed by SF, CF, and CSFN networks. The presented design is simple, compact, and very economical with optimal gain and bandwidth. The structure parameters of this proposed antenna are numerically computed. The antenna features are simulated by CST Microwave Studio, a commercial simulator based on finite integration techniques that support the numerical analysis. Further, the antenna performances based on the considered feeding techniques of the proposed antenna have been compared.

60 GHz dual‐polarized magneto‐electric dipole antenna array with hybrid gap waveguide feeding network in low temperature co‐fired ceramic technology

AbstractA 60 GHz 8 × 8 dual‐polarized aperture‐coupled magneto‐electric (ME) dipole antenna array in low temperature co‐fired ceramic (LTCC) technology is proposed. Taking advantage of the LTCC technology of high integration, the antenna array is composed of three parts, including the wideband ME dipole elements, dual‐polarized strip‐line series feeding network and low‐loss gap waveguide (GWG) feeding network. The ME dipole antenna element is fed by aperture coupling with 45° rotation. Two separate orthogonal strip lines are located right below the aperture to realize dual polarization performance. The simulated −10 dB impedance bandwidth of the dual‐polarized antenna element is 50–66.5 GHz with an isolation lower than −20 dB for two input ports. By employing the proposed radiating element, a 4 × 4 wide‐band dual‐polarized antenna subarray is realized by using strip‐line series‐feed technology. A compact hybrid low‐loss feeding network is realized by combing the GWG technology with the strip‐line series feed technology. For demonstration, one prototype was fabricated. The measured impedance bandwidth is 14.2% and 16.7% respectively for dual polarizations with |S11| < −8 dB, and the port isolation is lower than −20 dB over the entire frequency band of interest.

Multibeam Phased-Arrays Using Dual-Vector Distributed Beamforming: Architecture Overview and 28 GHz Transceiver Prototypes

This article presents a dual-vector distributed beamformer architecture that employs a series-feed network and is capable of supporting up to four simultaneous beams. The multibeam array uses scalar functions within each front end to create Cartesian-weighted signals needed for phase shifting. A dual-vector series-feed network combines/distributes these signals for the receiver/transmitter whereas a global quadrature interpolator is used to create two conjugate beams. By using an interpolator on either end of the series feed, a total of four beams can be obtained. Among these four beams, a first beam can be controlled independently, a second beam is formed as an image of the first, a third beam is offset from the first based on the amount of phase shift within the series-feed structure, and a fourth beam is an image of the offset beam. In this work, the theory of operation of the series-feed DVDB is presented and then two different four-element 28 GHz DVDB transceiver array prototypes in 120 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology are described. One uses a hybrid coupler for global interpolation at radio frequency (RF) and the other uses quadrature mixers for global interpolation at baseband. Measurement results for the array employing passive interpolation at RF show excellent phase-shifting performance, including < 1 dB root-mean-squared (RMS) gain error, < 2 degree RMS phase error, 24% 3 dB bandwidth, with 16–18.6 dBm saturated output power in transmit mode and 4.9–7.3 dB noise figure in receive mode. Measurement results for the array employing mixer-based interpolation likewise show excellent phase-shifting performance with similar RMS gain and phase errors and slightly degraded overall RF performance. Comparing the two, we conclude that the DVDB with passive interpolation at RF is better suited for partitioned systems where beamformers and transceivers are realized on separate chips to support larger, scalable arrays. In contrast, the DVDB with mixer-based interpolation is better suited for integrated systems where beamformers and frequency translation functions must be integrated together.

An infrared energy harvesting device using planar cross bowtie nanoantenna arrays and diode-less rectification based on electron field emission

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a rectification process through electron emission from sharp tips under a high electric field of 109–1010 V/m based on the Fowler–Nordheim theory. A large planar array of 104–105 nanoantennas is proposed to achieve the required electric field for electron emission in the nanoantenna gap. Spatial coherence of the incident wave is a prohibitive issue in using large antenna arrays, and it is overcome by choosing proper size for the array. The design starts with a single-element nanoantenna, for which, five different types are considered, namely dipole, spiral, cross bowtie, sinuses and square spiral. Full-wave simulations show that cross bowtie has the highest field enhancement. Moreover, two array configurations, i.e. series and parallel feed networks, are considered and their field enhancement are compared. Moreover, field enhancement in large array configurations is predicted using proposed equations based on curve fitting.

Cavity-Backed Slot-Coupled Patch Antenna Array With Dual Slant Polarization for Millimeter-Wave Base Station Applications

This article presents a novel dual slant polarized antenna for millimeter-wave (mmWave) base stations. Compared with the traditional slant polarized mmWave antennas, the proposed antenna offers the advantages of high cross-polarization discrimination (XPD), good aperture efficiency, simple structure, and low profile. The corner-fed substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity is adopted to improve the port isolation and XPD of this slot-coupled antenna. Four corner-truncated patches connected by a thin cross strip are placed over the SIW cavity to increase the operation bandwidth. Then, a 2 × 8 antenna array is designed to exemplify the antenna element performance. To improve the impedance matching, a shorted patch is introduced in designing the series feeding network and the power divider. The experimental results show that the 2 dB-down gain bandwidth of the proposed antenna array reaches 6.0% and the port isolation is better than 20 dB. The gain and XPD of the antenna array measure 16.7 dBi and 25 dB at the center frequency, respectively.

N-Way Planar Balanced-to-Balanced Series Feeding Network for Balanced Frequency-Scanning Phased Array

In this article, a novel series feeding network as an N-way balanced-to-balanced structure for balanced frequency-scanning phased array is proposed. Design requirements of the N-way balanced-to-balanced series feeding (BBSF) network are extracted and mixed-mode S-parameters are expressed by using matrix transformation. Designing the BBSF network without using baluns at input and output paths of the network results in the compact and low-loss feeding network, while maintaining the common-mode suppression feature. Furthermore, to have a planar BBSF network, microstrip crossovers are utilized to avoid the use of multilayer PCB design, resulting in the elegant transfer of intersecting RF signals. To validate the proposed structure, a three-way BBSF network is fabricated which shows acceptable mixed-mode measurement results. Also, to demonstrate the performance of the proposed structure, a balanced frequency-scanning phased array is designed employing the proposed feeding network. The measurement results of the fabricated array show that the differential return loss and the differential mode to common mode conversions are better than 20 and 30 dB at 5.85 GHz, respectively. Meanwhile, the fabricated array shows a wide-range beam-scanning capability over its frequency band.

Slit-Loaded Series Feed Network for Millimeter-Wave Array Antenna With a Low Sidelobe Level Over a Wide Bandwidth

A slit-loaded series feed network and its design procedure were proposed for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) array antennas with a low sidelobe level (SLL) over a wide bandwidth. In the proposed feed network, slit structures are used to suppress internal reflections within the array and to control the aperture amplitude in such a way to reduce the SLL. Four types of slit-loaded structure units are investigated to control the coupled power on an antenna element. A $1 {\times }13$ end-fed and $2 {\times }26$ center-fed array antennas were designed and fabricated based on the proposed design procedure, and their performances were measured. The proposed arrays were shown to have impedance bandwidths of 11.3% (75–84 GHz) and 10.2% (77.5–85.8 GHz), respectively. Moreover, they show stable radiation patterns with low SLLs under −17 dB over the frequencies of 75–83 and 78–84 GHz, respectively. The designed arrays were compared with other mm-wave array antennas and shown to have a lower SLL over wide bandwidths.

Four-Element Microstrip Patch Array Antenna with Corporate-Series Feed Network for 5G Communication

The paper proposes a simple four-element microstrip patch array antenna fed with corporate-series technique. The paper compares the proposed design with four-element antennas fed with only series-fed and corporate-fed microstrip antennas. All three antenna designs use rectangular microstrip patch elements with two insets and slots on both sides of the patch. The patch elements are accompanied by Yagi elements: three director elements and two reflector elements. Through comparison of simulation results, the paper shows that four-element array antenna with combined corporate-series feeding technique performs better compared to antennas with only either series or corporate feeding network. The proposed corporate-series fed antenna achieves better performance with wide frequency bandwidth of 25.04–30.87 GHz and gain of 9.5 dB. The antenna has an end-fire radiation pattern. Overall performance shows that the proposed corporate-series-fed microstrip patch antenna with Yagi elements is suitable for next generation 5G communication.

3061 Retrieval Number: D1608029420/2020©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.D1608.029420 Journal Website: www.ijitee.org Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering &amp; Sciences Publication Design of Meta Material Inspired Series and Corporate Feed Network Antenna

The present techniques are in the form of open literature used to work on selected frequency that has eight and sixteen rectangular patches. The size of it has become compact. Each approach offers different advantages, depending on the required applications. An array antenna is designed and analyzed using series and corporate feed network The FR4 substrate material which is of low cost and easily available in market is used to design the array antenna. An analysis is carried out for both series and corporate feed array antenna in terms of return loss, peak gain, VSWR, directivity, and bandwidth. The antenna’s size is reduced to a very compact size using optimization techniques without degrading the performance characteristics. The design is implemented to work for the multiband applications rather than a single application. Simulation is carried out in HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator) software tool. The design proposed is analyzed based on the performance and then it is fabricated.

Efficient design of compact millimeter wave microstrip linear array with bandwidth enhancement and sidelobe reduction

In this article, a novel linear mmWave antenna array with series-feed network is proposed to enhance the bandwidth and reduce sidelobe level without increasing the patch size. The proposed linear array is consisted of four identical wideband array elements, which are all under operation TM10 and TM02 modes by loading shorting pin and rectangular slots. Additionally, through loading symmetry circle-shaped slots for the four elements, impedance matching of linear array is achieved. Furthermore, multi-parameters unified-optimization (MPUO) based on imperial competition algorithm (ICA) is proposed to uniformly optimize all linear array parameters. To verify this design, the proposed linear array is fabricated with a small patch area of 7.5 × 3.914 × 0.254 mm3. The measured results show that the bandwidth is enhanced to 2.05GHz, which is 0.57GHz wider than that of simulation. The simulated peak gain reaches 13dBi while the sidelobe level is reduced to about −19 dB at 28.6GHz. Moreover, the computation cost using MPUO is reduced by 98.12% compared with that of independent parameters optimization.

Design of a Dual-Polarization Single-Ridged Waveguide Slot Array With Enhanced Bandwidth

A dual-polarization slotted waveguide array based on a single-ridged waveguide (SRWG) with enhanced working bandwidth and low cross-polarization is designed and fabricated. A longitudinal slot etched on the broad sidewall of the SRWG is employed for the vertical polarization (VP) radiating element, and a V-shaped slot cut on the ridged sidewall of the SRWG is used as a horizontal polarization (HP) radiating element. The width of the radiating slots is weighted to broaden the bandwidth of the radiating parts. A corporate feed network is employed as the feed network instead of a conventional series feed network. An 8 × 8 array is fabricated by milling and vacuum brazing. The measured VSWR < 2.0 bandwidth of the HP and VP arrays are 2.1 GHz (12.4%) and 1.6 GHz (9.4%), respectively, at the center frequency of 17 GHz. The gain of the HP and VP arrays are higher than 22.1 and 21.5 dBi with antenna efficiencies better than 59.3% and 52.9% over the operation bandwidth of 16.25–17.85 GHz.

Sequentially Rotated Circular Antenna Array With Curved PIFA and Series Feed Network

This paper describes the design of a broadside circularly polarized uniform circular array based on curved planar inverted F-antenna elements. Circular polarization (CP) is obtained by exploiting the sequential rotation technique and implementing it with a series feed network. The proposed structure is first introduced, and some geometrical considerations are derived. Second, the array radiation body is designed taking into account the mutual coupling among antenna elements. Third, the series feed network usually employed for four-antenna element arrays is analyzed and extended to three and more than four antennas exploiting the special case of equal power distribution. The array is designed with three-, four-, five-, and six-antenna elements, and dimensions, impedance bandwidth (defined for $S_{11}\leq -10$ dB), axial ratio (AR) bandwidth ( $\text {AR}\leq 3$ dB), gain, beamwidth, front-to-back ratio, and cross-polarization level are compared. Arrays with three and five elements are also prototyped to benchmark the numerical analysis results, finding good correspondence.

Integrated Full-Hemisphere Space-to-Frequency Mapping Antenna With CRLH Stripline Feed Network

A planar 2-D antenna array capable of mapping a full-hemisphere space to frequencies around 6 GHz is presented. It was designed using composite right-/left-handed transmission lines for the series feed network as well as for the radiating elements, thus achieving size reduction and beam steering control simplification compared to other approaches. Stripline fabrication technology is utilized to eliminate the undesired feed network radiation. A via-less unit cell reduces sensitivity to via misplacement. The result is an antenna that can be used for radar or imaging applications with the appropriate transmit/receive circuitry. Validation is provided by pattern measurements and successful detection of reflective targets.

Series Feed Networks for Dual-Polarized Frequency Scanning Phased Array Antenna Based on Composite Right/Left-Handed Transmission Line

In this paper, series feed networks based on composite right/left-handed transmission line for dual-polarized frequency scanning phased array antenna are presented. The proposed all-passive feed networks provide unique frequency dispersion and adjustable current amplitude distribution, which enable continuous backward-to-forward beam scanning capability as well as the directivity, beamwidth, and sidelobe level controllability of the incorporated array antenna. The working mechanisms are demonstrated through broadband dual-polarized aperture-coupled antenna elements and series feed networks that support uniform/binomial current amplitude distributions. Backward-to-forward frequency beam scanning and wide range beam shaping capability for dual-polarization states of the proposed phased array are validated in both simulation and measurement.

Series Feeding Network Based on Metamaterial Compensation Lines

A series feeding network with dispersion engineered compensation lines to reduce beam-squint radiation in linear antenna applications is investigated. The compensation lines are loaded in sections with left-handed and right-handed unit cells and branch off the main feed line. The signals from the branch points to the antenna elements are slowed down appropriately. Measurements of the radiation pattern of a test antenna show only little deviation from broadside radiation over a large frequency range in X-band.