A Modular Microstrip Phased-array Antenna for Low-Cost, Beam-Steerable Application

Abstract

This paper presents a K-band (17.7-19.7 GHz) beam steerable phased-array antenna for satellite communication (SATCOM) application. The microstrip patch antenna with PIN diode switches loaded can provide 2-bit phase resolution, thereby realizing the two-dimensional beam scanning. To illustrate the feasibility of this method, we used the reconfigurable 2-bit element to make a modular sparse subarray. Through the subarray splicing technology, full-wave simulation was performed on the regularly arranged 7 subarrays. The simulation results show that the array antenna has a stable left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) radiation pattern, which can be steered to an elevation angle of $45^{\circ}$. For all directional beams, the sidelobe levels (SLLs) and axial ratio (AR) performance can be maintained well.