Multilayer passive network integrated with antennas for phased array applications

Abstract

With the development of the integrated phased array, antennas and feeding networks are expected to be integrated together. In this case, the multilayer stacked technique has the advantages of reducing the circuit size and easy to fabricate by Print Circuit Board (PCB) process. In this paper, a complex microstrip feeding network, including a divider, a combiner and a monitoring structure, is employed to excite a 4×4 array, which has the potential to construct a tile phased array combined with T/R integrated circuits. A novel multilayer weak unequal divider is developed to realize the T/R module detection while keeping a compact configuration. Finally, an X-band multilayer passive network integrated with antennas is designed and full-wave simulated by HFSS. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones.