Design and Analysis of 5-18 GHz Planar Coupled Dipole Array Antenna for Phased Array Applications

This paper presents the design and analysis of 5 to 18 GHz compact planar coupled dipole array antenna for phased array applications. The antenna array is required to operate over 5 to 18 GHz band and to provide scan coverage of 45 deg in Az and El planes. The main objective of this work is to enhance the impedance and pattern bandwidth and to provide the broad scan coverage. The efforts has made to optimize the comb structure of coupled elements and for utilization of stacked layers to make it compact and wideband. Initial design and optimization of the proposed antenna carried out using 3D electromagnetic solver, CST Microwave studio. To analyze the functionality of proposed array antenna, a planar array of total 64 radiating elements (8 by 8) distributed over a rectangular aperture of 76.8 mm by 76.8 mm size is used. The proposed structure makes the Active Array Antenna Unit (AAAU) compact and is suitable for Tile based TR Module Active Array Units.