Design, Simulation and Performance Comparison of 1, 2, 4 and 8 Elements Quarter-Wave Transformer-Fed Circular Patch Antenna Array at L Band for Airborne Applications

Abstract

Of late, microstrip patch antenna in an airborne application is gaining importance as one of the most powerful technological trends. It has the immense potential, in airborne applications due to its low weight, low cost, its conformal and low profile. Hence, the present technological trends focus on microstrip patch antenna. However, it has disadvantage too; low gain, low efficiency, low directivity and narrow bandwidth. Nevertheless, these disadvantages can be overcome by implementation of many patch antennas in array configuration. Research studies reveal that as we increase number of patch elements to form an array, an increment in gain and decrement in beamwidth are noticed. However, this chapter elucidates modeling and simulation of a microstrip line quarter-wave transformer-fed 1, 2, 4 and 8 circular patch antenna array. The substrate material used for these antennas is RT/Duroid 5880 with a thickness of 1.588 mm, and dielectric constant (ε _r) is 2.2 and has a design frequency of 2 GHz and VSWR ≤2. The proposed antennas are thus modeled and simulated using ANSOFT HFSS. The radiation characteristics of the above arrays are compared.