A Multiband Patch Antenna with Co-Located Phase Centers for High-Accuracy Inter-Node Ranging in Distributed Antenna Arrays

TL;DR

This paper introduces a three-band patch antenna designed for high-accuracy inter-node ranging in distributed antenna arrays, supporting coherent beamforming with closely aligned phase centers at multiple frequencies.

Contribution

A novel concentric three-band patch antenna supporting both distributed beamforming and high-accuracy ranging with co-located phase centers at multiple frequencies.

Findings

Phase center displacement of about lambda/10 at the ranging frequencies.

Supports S11 below -10 dB at all three bands.

Simulated and measured results confirm performance objectives.

Abstract

A unique three-band patch antenna for high accuracy ranging between nodes in open-loop coherent distributed antenna arrays is presented. Open-loop coherent distributed operations require accurate relative position knowledge between nodes to enable distributed beamforming operations. For the highest accuracy, the inter-node ranging will typically occur at frequencies higher than the frequency of the signal transmitted by the distributed array (the coherent action signal) to enable wider bandwidth signals to be used, however it is important that the inter-node ranging measure the distance between the antennas transmitting the coherent action signal. In this work, a three-band antenna is presented that is designed to support distributed beamforming at 1.88 GHz and high-accuracy ranging using a sparse, two-tone waveform operating near 9.5 and 10.5 GHz. The two-tone waveform is supported by a slotted patch antenna surrounded by a larger patch antenna supporting the 1.88 GHz array signal. The antennas are concentrically designed to ensure that the phase centers of the ranging antenna and the coherent action antenna are closely aligned. Simulated and measured performance shows phase center displacement of approximately lambda/10 relative to the coherent action signal, while maintaining S11 below -10 dB at each band.