Sector-Beam Antenna Array for 77 GHz Automotive RADAR Systems

Abstract

This paper presents a reconfigurable sector-beam antenna that operates at 77 GHz for automotive RADAR systems. The proposed antenna array is composed of three dipoles with three open circuits used as switches. Therefore, the proposed antenna can achieve three reconfigurable beams by controlling the switches states. The design processes are presented, and the structure is optimized and simulated. According to the simulated results, seven modes with a global matching bandwidth of [75–81 GHz] (S11< 10 dB) can be selected with peak gain of 6.18 dBi and good total efficiency of 78%. beam-steered directional patterns (covering 180 °) can be electronically tuned depending on the working states. The comparison to other state-of-the-art antennas shows that the proposed reconfigurable array has a compact size, high gain and easy to design. This proposed antenna is well suitable for 77 GHz automotive RADAR systems.