Fabrication and measurements of a low-cost, dual-polarized advanced planar array with wide scanning coverage

Specialized narrowband planar arrays are attractive for radar, narrowband communication and SATCOM due to the ease of integration of the radiators with electronics. However, the cost of phased array technology remains prohibitive for direct insertion in some applications when compared to traditional mechanically steered arrays. To address this issue, this paper describes the manufacturing and measurements of a low-cost, planar, and monolithic printed circuit board array operating in the S-Band (2.7-2.9GHz) with an active VSWR <; 2.2 up to scanning angles up of +/-50° from broadside. Scan loss is also kept very low (n <; 1.2). An 8×8 planar array was fabricated and its impedance and array patterns were measured.