Microstrip ESPAR Antenna With Conical Beam Scanning
Raffaele De Marco, Emilio Arnieri, Giandomenico Amendola, Luigi Boccia
Abstract
This letter introduces a new design for a 2-D electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) based on a 3×3 microstrip patch array. The proposed configuration enables conical beam steering by using nine radiating elements, one active U-slot patch antenna and eight parasitic elements. To validate the proposed design, a prototype was manufactured and experimentally validated. The reported results show a continuous steering range of 75 degrees on E-plane (ϕ = 0°), ranging from -45° to +30°, 74 degrees on H-plane (ϕ = 90°) from -37° to +37°, and 60 degrees on D-plane (ϕ = 51°), from -36° to +25°. The operational bandwidth is about 1.8 %, including the band reduction due to beam scanning. The measured aperture efficiency is equal to 38% with a maximum gain of 8.2 dB.