Angular Scan Enhancement of Ka-Band Circularly Polarized Phased Array Using Dielectric Dome

This paper introduces a dielectric dome designed to enhance the angular scan of a circularly polarized phased array antenna at 29 GHz, while reducing broadside loss. The dome was created using a straightforward calculation-based approach. An <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX&q...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ebenezer Tawiah Ashong, Van Thang Nguyen, Jae-Young Chung
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10752956/
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Summary:This paper introduces a dielectric dome designed to enhance the angular scan of a circularly polarized phased array antenna at 29 GHz, while reducing broadside loss. The dome was created using a straightforward calculation-based approach. An <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8\times 8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> circularly polarized dome antenna array was simulated to showcase the scalability of the proposed dome antenna array. However, a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4\times 4$ </tex-math></inline-formula> circularly polarized dielectric dome antenna array was manufactured and tested as a proof-of-concept. The proposed dielectric dome extends the angular scan range of a standalone circularly polarized phased array antenna from 40 &#x00B0; to 50 &#x00B0; with a 2.4 dB broadside transmission loss. Additionally, the depolarization effects of the dome were studied, revealing that the dome also improves the 3-dB axial ratio scanning range of the phased array antenna from 38 &#x00B0; to 50 &#x00B0;. Thus, the proposed dome antenna array achieves significant angular scan enhancement and moderate broadside loss using a homogeneous material, and compares favorably with the current state-of-the-art technology. This study also provides valuable insights into the depolarization effects of an angular scan-enhancing dome for the first time. The proposed dome antenna array could be a promising option for B5G/6G non-terrestrial network user terminals.
ISSN:2169-3536