A cavity-backed coplanar waveguide slot antenna array

• Main Author: Mcknight, James W
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholar Commons 2009
• Subjects: CPW slot; CPW-fed slot; Reflector; Bi-directional feed; Series feed; Beam-steering; C-band; American Studies; Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2096; http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3095&context=etd

In this thesis, a cavity-backed slot antenna array is designed for relatively wide instantaneous bandwidth, high gain and low sidelobes. The array consists of four, rectangular, slot elements, arranged side-by-side in a linear array and developed around 5GHz. Two feed points, at opposing sides of the printed array, each excite two of the slot elements through a series feed. This bidirectional feed presents symmetry to the design and prevents the tendency of beam-drift versus frequency as is common with many series-fed arrays. While being fed in-phase, the array will maintain boresight at broadside over the entire operating bandwidth. Also, the additional port allows for the potential introduction of a phase offset and, therefore, beam tilt. Finally, the printed array is designed to function within a quarter-wave, metallic cavity to achieve unidirectional radiation and improve gain.