A wideband wide-angle scanning 1-D microstrip patch array

Controlling the mutual coupling between array elements is one of the key problems in phased array designs. In this letter, a wideband decoupling network is proposed to suppress the mutual coupling between adjacent array elements. It is shown that the employment of the proposed network leads to a significant improvement of the operating bandwidth under the condition of maintaining a wide scan range, compared with conventional feeding techniques. In this manner, a 1 × 16 stack patch phased array prototype with the proposed decoupling network was fabricated. Measurement results agree well with simulated ones and indicate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in designing a wideband wide-angle scanning phased array.