Reactively Loaded Dielectric-Based Antenna Arrays With Enhanced Bandwidth and Flat-Top Radiation Pattern Characteristics

This paper presents an antenna array organized in sub-arrays and composed of densely spaced dielectric-based radiating elements. To reduce the number of active components required in the array beamforming network, each sub-array consists of a single active element, directly fed, and several passive reactively loaded elements. State-of-the-art implementations of such arrays are typically based on rectangular air-filled waveguide radiators which provide a limited bandwidth and support a single linear polarization only. By utilizing the dielectric-based radiators presented in this work, a significant increase in the operating bandwidth of the array can be achieved. In this case, the aforementioned reactive loading is implemented through short-circuited dielectric-filled waveguides. By optimizing the position of the short circuits, the radiation pattern of the sub-array can be controlled and synthesized according to a given mask. To create larger design flexibility, one can design the sub-array in the presence of the adjacent sub-arrays, achieving in this way their effective overlapping. By employing the considered design technique, a sub-array featuring flat-top radiation pattern characteristics in combination with low side-lobe levels and high gain was developed, manufactured, and thoroughly analyzed. An additional benefit of such a design choice is the possibility of supporting two orthogonal polarizations.