IEICE Transactions on Communications
Online ISSN : 1745-1345
Print ISSN : 0916-8516
Regular Section
Radial Line Planar Phased Array Using Electromechanically Rotated Helical Antennas
Narihiro NAKAMOTOYusuke SUZUKISatoshi YAMAGUCHIToru FUKASAWANaofumi YONEDAHiroaki MIYASHITANaoki SHINOHARA
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2023 Volume E106.B Issue 2 Pages 174-183

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel radial line planar phased array in which helical antenna elements are individually rotated by their respective connected micromotors to realize dynamic beam-scanning. To our knowledge, this is the first radial line planar array (RLPA) that has antenna elements electromechanically rotated by their individual micromotors. To facilitate its fabrication, helix and its probe are directly metallized on a plastic shaft using molded interconnect device technology, and a motor shaft is press-fitted into the plastic shaft. We also present a new design methodology for RLPA, which combines the equivalent circuit theory and electromagnetic simulations of the unit cell element. The proposed procedure is practical to design an RLPA of antenna elements with arbitrary probe shape without large-scale full-wave analysis of the whole structure of the RLPA. We design, fabricate, and evaluate a 7-circle array with 168 helical antenna elements fabricated using molded interconnect device technology. The prototype antenna exhibits dynamic and accurate beam-scanning performance. Furthermore, the prototype antenna exhibits a low reflection coefficient (less than -17dB) and high antenna efficiency (above 77%), which validates the proposed design methodology.

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© 2023 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
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