High-Efficiency Wide-Angle Scanning Mechanoelectrical Hybrid Phased Array Antenna With Mechanically Reconfigurable Element Pattern

In this letter, a high-efficiency wide-angle scanning mechanoelectrical hybrid phased array antenna with mechanically reconfigurable element pattern is proposed. The proposed array is composed of several linear array panels, which can be mechanically rotated. In contrast to conventional hybrid scanning arrays, it rotates in the elevation plane with only three fixed states enabling quick beam switching capabilities, rather than constantly rotating in the azimuth plane. The optimal element's half-power beamwidth (HPBW) and panel rotation angle are examined in this letter to produce the best scanning range and gain performance in the rotation plane for the array. As a prototype, an 8 × 8 array formed by an equivalent magnetic dipole patch antenna, whose HPBW is properly designed to satisfy the optimal value, is configured and fabricated. Both simulated and experimental results show that the proposed array can scan its main beam from −67° to 67° in the
yoz
-plane, −75° to 75° in the
xoz
-plane, and its 3 dB beam coverage reaches ±82°, ±90° in the two planes. Additionally, the peak efficiency of the array can reach 75%.