Wideband focal plane connected array

Abstract

\u3cp\u3eThis paper discusses the main design challenges of wideband antenna elements which can be used in wideband focal-plane arrays and phased arrays. The impact of significant mutual coupling on the active impedance matching is presented for the case of wideband focal plane arrays (FPAs). Two novel FPA designs are presented. The array elements are based on a modified version of the well-known bow-tie antenna. The proposed array shows excellent active matching properties. It is shown that the center element of a 5×5 array, operating at a center frequency of 30 GHz, has an impedance bandwidth of 20 GHz. Moreover, a further optimized concept provides a similar bandwidth with a twice as high element density.\u3c/p\u3