A switching mechanism to mitigate scan blindness in phased arrays

This paper presents a novel solution to extend the scanning range of a cavity-backed stacked-patch phased array subject to scan blindness. Two main aspects are investigated. The first section is a thorough description of the scan blindness mechanism occurring in the reported array, taking into consideration the characteristics of the associated mutual coupling scheme. The second section introduces a revised array topology that allows extending the scanning range. The proposed solution is based on the switching between two operating modes of the structure, each one covering a distinct scanning range. Taken together, they potentially allow freeing the structure from scan blindness. In the present case, the scanning capability of the array has been extended by 10° in the scanning plane of interest.