Aa Unbalanced Feed Design for Wideband Phased Arrays

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple, unbalanced planar phased array antenna design with ultra-wideband performance covering multiple frequency bands, reducing complexity and sensitivity to manufacturing tolerances, validated through simulations and experiments.

Contribution

Introduces a novel unbalanced feed design for wideband phased arrays that simplifies construction and improves robustness without requiring baluns or vias.

Findings

Achieved ultra-wideband performance covering L-, S-, and C-bands.

Validated design through simulations and experimental measurements.

Reduced antenna complexity and sensitivity to mechanical tolerances.

Abstract

In this work, a planar phased array antenna was engineered with ultra-wideband (UWB) performance that covers portions of the L-, S-, and C-bands. The unit cell design contains a driven layer that is directly connected to a single coaxial feed and a parasitic layer located above the driven layer separated by free space. This design does not require a balun or any vias between the antenna ground plane and the driven layer, resulting in a simple antenna stack-up consisting of only planar layers, aside from the feed structure. As a consequence, the complexity, and potentially sensitivity to mechanical tolerances, is reduced. The simulated results of this unbalanced phased array are discussed and experimentally validated.