Ultra-Wideband Dual-Curved Conformal Phased Array Antenna with Multi-Material 3D Printing for Hemispherical Scan Coverage

Planar-configured phased arrays with typical beam coverage of ±60° can’t meet the increasing demands for wider beam coverage, like the ±90° needed in low-altitude aerial vehicle applications. Existing dual-curved conformal array antennas also have limitations, such as narrow bandwidth or high profile. An ultra-wideband dual-curved conformal phased array antenna with the multi-material three-dimensional (3D) printing process is presented in this paper. A mushroom-shaped structure is designed to suppress edge truncation effect in 2×2 subarrays, expanding impedance bandwidth to 8−26 GHz. Modifying the feeding method of the orthogonally polarized dipoles and adding parasitic patches eliminate radiation pattern distortion. A 14-element dual-polarized array prototype is built, fabricated, and verified by full-wave simulations and experiments. It achieves a beam coverage range of ±90° (hemispherical scan coverage) in a limited volume. The antenna enables one piece manufacturing with a dual-curved conformal configuration, a low profile, and a large-curvature structure.