A Microstrip Patch Phased Array Antenna with Parasitic Elements and Reactance-Tuned Coupling

Justin J. Luther*, and Xun Gong

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. 32816 jluther@knights.ucf.edu, xungong@mail.ucf.edu
Abstract A new approach to parasitic phased array antennas is presented. A symmetric two-layer, single input inexpensive threeelement array at 1 GHz employing varactors as tuning mechanisms is designed, fabricated and measured. The driven element is mutually coupled to two parasitic elements in the Hplane, and the mutual coupling is tuned by open-circuited microstrip stubs on the feed layer. The varactors are used to break the symmetry of the structure, resulting in beam scanning, and to maintain resonance at 1 GHz. A symmetric scanning range of -20 to +20o is measured with maintained impedance matching and radiation pattern integrity. The low cost of this array is advantageous to applications in point-to-point communication systems, weather and target tracking radar systems. Keywords- Electronically Scanned Array; Microstrip Antennas; Parasitic Array; Phased Array Antenna.
(a)

I.

INTRODUCTION

The beam steering capability of a phased array antenna is traditionally provided by phase shifters. However, phase shifters contribute heavily to the total cost of a phased array system. Additionally, phase shifters exhibit considerable loss at X band and above. Therefore, a reduction in number or elimination of phase shifters is of great fiscal benefit and allows more widespread use of this technology to both military and civil applications. The electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) has been explored previously as a method to reduce traditional phase shifters within a phased array system. The ESPAR exhibits a unique phase shifting mechanism where mutual coupling between adjacent radiators feeds the parasitic radiator, and tunable reactive loading at the terminals of the parasitic radiator creates the necessary phase shift [1]. An ESPAR design employing dipoles was published in [2], and more recently, microstrip patch antennas were utilized in [3-4]. While the patch approach results in a low profile and inexpensive design, there are drawbacks with the previously explored design methods. Lack of a coupling magnitude control mechanism resulted in tapered distributions across the array, creating broad patterns and large side lobes [3]. Additionally, impedance matching was not maintained for the 2-dimensional array in [4], to the detriment of total gain. It is necessary to explore novel approaches to alleviate these shortcomings. A three-element patch array is designed similarly to the ESPAR approach, as shown in Fig. 1 (a). Coupling capacitors

(b) Figure 1. (a) Proposed parasitic array schematic. (b) Stacked layer view.

are placed between the driven and parasitic patches as a means to control the coupling between them. Compensation varactors are placed on the parasitic patches to preserve resonance at the operation frequency. The traditional tunable reactances at the parasitic ports are replaced by open circuited stubs, the lengths of which are optimized in the design phase. This method achieves electronic scanning from -20 to +20 with maintained impedance match and pattern integrity with no grating lobes. A traditional phased array of this size would employ at least two phase shifters, whereas the proposed approach utilizes eight commercially available and inexpensive varactors. The reduced cost of this design will benefit applications in both military and commercial sectors. A prototype is fabricated and measured, with integrated DC biasing. The theory, design, full-wave simulations, and prototype measurements of this novel antenna array are presented and discussed.

978-1-4244-9561-0/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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II.

THEORY AND DESIGN

Rectangular patch antennas were selected for their wellknown high coupling level and ease of fabrication. Mutual coupling between closely-placed patch antennas has proven effective as a feed mechanism in [2], where the steering capability was realized using tunable reactive loading at the parasitic radiator terminals. The parasitic radiator current, expressed as a ratio to the driven element current using ZParameters, is governed by (1), applied at the terminals of the radiators:

desired array operation frequency. In order to allow variations of the coupling capacitance while maintaining the same operation frequency, grounded compensation varactors (C_CMP in Fig. 1) are placed along the exterior edges of each patch. The varactors used for this antenna array can be either analog or digital, e.g., a digital capacitor bank. The coupling capacitors are the primary contributors to the phase shift between the parasitically-coupled antennas. The placement and adjustment of the varactors is chosen to retain symmetry along the non-radiating slot, suppressing cross-polarized radiation. The center antenna is the driving element, and is fed through microstrip-to-slot coupling as illustrated in Fig. 1 and 2. The antenna dielectric layer consists of 62-mil Rogers Duroid 5880 (r = 2.2, tan = 0.0009) substrate, while the microstrip feed layer is 60-mil Rogers RO4003 (r = 3.55, tan = 0.0027) substrate. The gap G between the elements is chosen to realize a desirable coupling level between the antenna elements. Strong coupling is desired for uniform current magnitude across the array, maximizing gain; however, overcoupling causes more pronounced resonance splitting and is avoided. The driven element is connected to the source through a 50-ohm microstrip line, while the parasitic element is terminated with an open-circuited stub offset by a length of transmission line, LOC. The stubs are essentially microstrip resonators which couple to the parasitic patches and affect the magnitude and phase of the induced current. The stub length is the parameter adjusted during the simulation phase to achieve optimal coupling and pattern characteristics. The array operating frequency is chosen to be 1 GHz; therefore, the patch antenna dimensions L and W are selected such that the unloaded patch resonates at 1.04 GHz. Two identical patches are coupled in the H-Plane at a gap distance of 3 mm, and the final structure is completely symmetric. The dimensions of the structure are shown in detail in Fig. 2. DC biasing is required to provide the appropriate voltage differences for the reverse-biased diode varactors. A wire of 0.5 mm diameter connects from the surface of the patch to power supply lines on the feed layer, passing through a hole in the ground plane. The location of connection to the patch is selected to bisect the patch along its resonant length, at a point where surface current sees a virtual short due to the minimized electric field and maximized current magnitude for the patch's fundamental mode. The resonance and radiation characteristics are preserved, and the DC power supply remains isolated from the RF signal by both the inductance of the small-diameter wire and the existence of an RF virtual short in parallel. The compensation varactor grounding stubs are shown in Fig. 2 (b). The loading effect of the capacitors is largely sensitive to the varactor location along the resonant length; therefore, the exact position is a degree of freedom which is manipulated in the simulation phase. III. FULL-WAVE SIMULATION The design illustrated in Fig. 1 and 2 was simulated using Ansofts High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) fullwave solver package. After a single element was designed and simulated at 1.04 GHz, identical parasitic patches were coupled as shown. The varactors were modeled as idealized lumped

I2 I1

 Z 21 . Z 22  Z C

(1)

ZC in (1) is a controllable mechanism, and represents the impedance at the parasitic port due to the termination impedance. It is clear that adjusting the value ZC will also impact the magnitude of the parasitic current. More importantly, the limited range of ZC for a tunable capacitive load, such as those previously used in the ESPAR [2, 3] can make it impossible to achieve both positive and negative phase values. The solution is a combination of judicious termination and an additional degree of freedom in controlling the parasitic coupling. To maintain the magnitude of induced current on the passive radiator while providing the sufficient phase shifting mechanism, tunable coupling capacitors (C_CPL in Fig. 1) are connected in between the adjacent patches. The primary impact of such loading is on the resonant frequency, since it is well understood that a capacitive loading at the edge of a patch antenna decreases the resonant frequency [5]. It is then imperative to design the individual resonant radiator to resonate, unloaded, at a higher frequency than the

(a)

Coupling apertures Grounding stubs Tuning stub

Coupling apertures LOC

S Grounding stubs

Tuning stub

Main excitation
(b) Figure 1. Dimensions of the radiating structure. (a) Patch layer. (b) Feed layer. (L = 91, W = 78, D = 81, G = 3, S = 38, WS = 21, LS = 6, C = 25.5, I = 3.5). All dimensions are in mm.

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TABLE I. Scan Angle [deg] 0 7 15

SIMULATED RESULTS (ALL VALUES GIVEN AT 1 GHZ) Loading Schemes and Gain Characteristics
Peak Gain [dBi] CPL_1 [pF] CPL_2 [pF] CMP_1 [pF] CMP_2 [pF]

7.5 7.5 6.9

2.6 1.7 1.5

2.6 2.9 3.0

2.6 1.1 0.8

2.6 3.2 3.5

components, and were adjusted in unison to tune the resonance to 1.0 GHz. The slot dimensions were then simultaneously adjusted for each of the patches to minimize return loss. As the varactors were all of the same value and the structure was symmetric, the generated pattern was symmetric and no scanning was exhibited. Finally, the parasitic termination stub lengths were tuned through a parametric sweep to produce optimal coupling characteristics, which increased gain and

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0 -30 -60 30 60
(b)

-90 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 -120

90 Scan Angle -15 Scan Angle 0 120 Scan Angle 15 -150 -180
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Figure 4. Photos of the array prototype. (a) Patch layer with varactors [inset]. (b) Feed layer.

reduced the half power beamwidth while eliminating grating lobes. To achieve beam scanning, the symmetry of the design must be broken; this is accomplished by adjusting the loading capacitances of the structure in a non-symmetric fashion. The coupling capacitors for each parasitic element are adjusted from their nominal value to alter the mutual coupling characteristics. As this typically alters the structure's resonant frequency, the compensation varactors are then tuned to bring the resonance back to the desired operation frequency of 1 GHz. Three simulation cases are presented in Table 1, the results of which are displayed graphically in Fig. 4 (a) and (b). It is noted that as the structure is symmetric, values of the parasitic element varactors are interchanged to produce a radiation pattern mirrored in the H-plane and identical resonant behavior. IV. FABRICATION, MEASUREMENT, AND RESULTS A prototype of this array was fabricated and measured. The fine features of the antenna and feed layers were milled out by an LPKF ProtoMat S100 milling machine, including drilled via holes, with the majority of extraneous copper removed by etching. Concentric apertures were milled out from the ground planes of each layer, and those ground planes were coated in a thin layer of solder. The individual layers were aligned, clamped together, and bonded. Finally, Infineon BB857E7902 chip varactors were mounted and soldered. Fig. 4 (a) illustrates the fabricated patch layer, with the mounted varactors shown in

150

0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 0.8

S11 [dB]

Scan Angle -15 Scan Angle 0 Scan Angle 15

0.9 1.0 1.1 Frequency [GHz]

1.2

(b) Figure 3. Simulated performance. (a) Normalized gain patterns. (b) S11.

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-30 -60 -90 -120

30 60

-30 -60

30 60
-60

-30

30 60

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 150 -150 -180

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90 -90 120

-120

90 -90 0.0 0.2 0.4 120 -120 0.6 0.8 Simulation 1.0 -150 150 Measurement -180
(b)

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 150 -150 -180

(c)

90 120

Figure 5. Simulated and measured normalized array gain patterns for different scanning angles: (a) -20o. (b) 0 o. (c) 20 o.

Simulation Measurement
0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 Frequency [GHz] 1.2
0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 Frequency [GHz] 1.2

0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 Frequency [GHz] 1.2

S11 [dB]

(c) (a) (b) o o o Figure 6. Simulated and measured scattering parameters for different scanning angles: (a) -20 . (b) 0 . (c) 20 .

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the zoomed section. Fig. 4 (b) shows the feed layer, composed of the driven microstrip, DC bias via holes, tuning stubs and ground stubs. The wires from the DC supply are not shown. The antenna was measured in an anechoic chamber under biasing schemes corresponding to the simulation cases. The resulting radiation patterns are displayed in Fig. 5. The simulations and measured patterns match closely, with exhibited symmetric scanning from -20 to 20. The patterns are narrow and match the simulated patterns very well. There is an offset of 5 in the -20 and 20 cases. This is attributed to the altered resonant behavior due to fabrication tolerance, and the uncertainty of the varactors. The resonance behavior is displayed in Fig. 6, and closely matches the trends of the simulated case, with a 0.5% center resonance shift due to fabrication tolerance. The resonance splitting due to the coupled patches is also present in the fabricated device. V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK A novel, inexpensive parasitic phased array antenna has been presented. The approach exhibits ample beam scanning in a -20 to 20 range with maintained pattern integrity, no side lobes, and low return loss for all cases. There are no phase shifters in the design and only inexpensive, commerciallyavailable diode varactors were employed. The structure was fabricated and measured, and its performance was accurately

predicted by simulation. This array will be incorporated as a unit cell in a linear or planar array as part of future work. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation Faculty Early CAREER Award under Grant 0846672, and generous donation of materials from the Rogers Corporation. We also want to thank Dr. Siamak Ebadi for his helpful comments. REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

R. Harrington, Reactively controlled directive arrays, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagation, vol. AP-26, no. 3, pp. 390-395, May 1978. J. Lu, D. Ireland, and R. Schlub, Dielectric embedded ESPAR (DE-ESPAR) antenna array for wireless communications, IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propagation, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 2437-2443, August 2005. Y. Yusuf and X. Gong, A low-cost patch antenna phased array with analog beam steering using mutual coupling and reactive loading, Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE , vol.7, no., pp.81-84, 2008. J. Seongheon, H. Dohyuk, and W. J. Chappell, "A planar parasitic array antenna for tunable radiation pattern," in Proc. 2009 IEEE AP-S Int. Symp., June 2009. J. Zhang and A. Mortazawi, An L-band microstrip antenna using multiple varactors, in Proc. 2003 IEEE AP-S Int. Symp., June 2003

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