Investigation of Frequency Scanning Printed Bruce Array Antenna

Abstract

A printed edge-fed counterpart of wire Bruce array antenna, with open-stopband mitigation at broadside, is presented. The proposed antenna comprises of 11 meandered unit-cells periodically modulated in congruence with wire Bruce array antenna's theory. To mitigate the effects of open-stopband, the horizontal and vertical lengths of unit-cell are adjusted along with the addition of an inward bent element allowing seamless scanning from backward to forward endfire region. The antenna has two distinct frequency scanning ranges between 18.0 GHz and to 37.20 GHz with Sidelobe level ≤ -10 dB. A dual Bruce array, using two-way Klopfenstein tapered feedline power divider, is then proposed to increase the peak realized gain to 18.61 dBi followed by a two-port solution to widen the scanning range of the antenna.

Keywords

• Periodic structures
• planar arrays
• leaky wave antennas