Design and development of high power broadband proximity coupled microstrip array antenna for monopulse RADAR.

This paper investigated and presented proximity coupled microstrip radiating antenna array at X-Band for monopulse radar application. Feed network designed on thin bottom layer and linear polarized Microstrip Patch Antenna (MPA) designed on top layer. Comparator realized with four quadrature hybrids on feeding layer to realize monopulse network. Thin feeding layer with $0.66 {\lambda}_{0}$ inter element spacing selected in antenna to achieve low sidelobe level (SLL). Feeding layer substrate selected to handle high peak and average powers. Simulated & optimized the design using commercially available electromagnetic software. Bonding film used to attach feeding network with radiating layer. $8.3 \lambda_{0}$ size $(\Phi 280 \mathrm{~mm})$ circular aperture with uniform distribution incorporated. The antenna shows 600MHz Return Loss (RL) and pattern bandwidths, with gain of greater than 26dBi and SLL of less than −19 dB. It is proposed to use for monopulse RADAR application.