Reconfigurable Transmitarray with Near Field Coupling to Gap Waveguide Array Antenna for Efficient 2D Beam Steering

Journal article, 2020

A novel array antenna architecture is proposed that can enable 2D (full-space) radiation pattern control and efficient beam steering. This solution is based on a fixed-beam gap wave-guide (GWG) array antenna and a reconfigurable transmitarray (TA) that are coupled in the radiative near field. An equivalent two-port network model of the coupling mechanism is presented and validated numerically. The desired TA reconfiguration capability is realized by an 8×8 array of cavity-backed patch resonator elements, where two AlGaAs PIN-diodes are integrated inside each element providing a 1-bit phase shift. The TA is implemented in an 8-layer PCB, which includes radiating elements, fixed phase-shifting inner-stripline sections, impedance matching and biasing circuitry. The combined antenna design is low-profile (~ 1.7 wavelength) owing to the small separation between two arrays (~ 0.5 wavelength), as opposed to conventional TAs illuminated by a focal source. The design procedure of the proposed architecture is outlined, and the measured and simulated results are shown to be in good agreement. These results demonstrate 23.5 — 25.2 GHz –10-dB impedance bandwidth and 23.3 — 25.3 GHz 3-dB gain bandwidth, a beam-steering range of ±30° and ±40° in the E- and the H-plane with the gain peak of 17.5 dBi, scan loss ≤ 3.5 dB and TA unit cell insertion loss ≤ 1.8 dB.