IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation (Jan 2020)

<italic>Ku</italic>-Band Dual Linear-Polarized 1-D Beam Steering Antenna Using Parabolic-Cylindrical Reflector Fed by a Phased Array Antenna

  • Ghanshyam Mishra,
  • Satish Kumar Sharma,
  • Jia-Chi Samuel Chieh,
  • Randall B. Olsen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/OJAP.2020.2977876
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1
pp. 57 – 70

Abstract

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We propose a 1D beam steering high gain hybrid reflector-phased array antenna system for enhanced data rate wireless communication at Ku-band (12 - 14 GHz). The proposed hybrid antenna system consists of a D = 50 cm offset parabolic-cylindrical reflector withf/D = 0.4 fed by an 8 x 4 dual linear-polarized stacked patch phased array antenna placed along the focal line of the reflector. The parabolic-cylindrical reflector has the property of a wide-angle beam steering along the cylindrical axis as compared to a conventional parabolic reflector. A complete implementation of the dual linear-polarized phased array antenna with the silicon RFIC chipset based beamforming network and integrated with aluminum offset parabolic-cylindrical reflector is reported. Cavity model and physical optics approximations are used to analyze the radiation characteristics of the phased array and the induced currents on the parabolic-cylindrical reflector surface, respectively. Furthermore, the multilevel fast multipole method (MLFMM) is used along with the method of moments (MoM) in TICRA GRASP for a comprehensive analysis of the proposed hybrid reflector system. The peak directivity of the reflector pattern is around 27 dBi for both the X-polarization and Y-polarization, and a beam scanning of ±30° is achieved along the cylindrical axis of the reflector for 3 dB reduction in the gain. The analytical and computed results of the proposed hybrid reflector-phased array antenna system are experimentally verified.

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