Faceted vs. smoothly curved antenna front-end for a conformal array radar demonstrator

The present paper describes the development of a sub-array element and a conformal array antenna front-end suited for radar applications. The aperture was built in a piecewise planar (faceted) and a novel smoothly curved way. Experimental results for both cases are shown and compared. Investigations on the radiation performance and mutual coupling are conducted for the case of a single curved antenna array of elliptical shape