A wideband planar aperture array using interconnected crossed rings

Abstract

A 5:1 frequency bandwidth aperture array antenna based on a new planar structure is reported. Dual polarization is implemented with high cross-polarization discrimination over ±45° scan angle from zenith. It is a low-loss cost-effective approach using minimum dielectric materials. In the proposed planar antenna array design, a mutual coupled interconnected ring structure is used which extends the operational frequency band to the region where the element separation can be considerably greater than half a wavelength, unlike the previously reported interconnected array structures. Hence, the total number of elements can be reduced for a specified aperture size. The dual polarization has coincident phase centers and in the implementation reported here two low-noise amplifiers on the same board are integrated with a pair of dual-polarized elements to form an active array. A 10 by 10 element array prototype of the design has been manufactured and the measured results confirm it as a low cost, high-performance front-end solution.