Spatial power combiners using active reflect-arrays and horn antennas

Novel configurations of power combiners using active reflect-arrays of transistor amplifiers with microstrip patch antennas at their input/output ports and either small or large horn antennas as power distributing/combining devices are proposed and investigated. In order to obtain reduced spacing for optimal power combining conditions, the transistors amplifiers in the active array use dual-feed aperture coupled microstrip patch antennas for reception and transmission. An X-band 137 element planar active reflect-array illuminated by a small horn antenna and radiating in boresight direction is presented as a design example. The obtained results show that in order to achieve efficient power combining the dual feed aperture-coupled patch antennas have to feature high isolation between their orthogonal ports. The design of such an antenna is shown.