Design of low-profile tightly coupled dipole array antenna

With the rapid development of multi-functional and integrated electronic information equipment, the demand for ultra wideband array antenna is becoming more and more urgent. However, airborne and ship borne platforms often have strict restrictions on the weight and size of the load. The design of low profile, lightweight ultra wideband phased array antenna can effectively solve the contradiction between platform constraints and multi-functional requirements. In this paper, a low-profile, light weight ultra wideband array antenna design scheme based on tightly coupled dipole antenna element is proposed. The antenna uses parasitic dipole matching layer and frequency selective surface (FSS) matching layer to replace the traditional dielectric wide-angle impedance matching layer, which can effectively reduce the antenna weight while realizing wide-angle scanning. Moreover, the antenna profile is reduced to be less than one tenth of the wavelength of lowest frequency and the simulation results show that the array antenna element can achieve 6:1 operating bandwidth. It can achieve ±60° scanning in E-plane with voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR)≤3 and ±45° in H-plane with VSWR≤3.5. A prototype of 16×16 is fabricated and the experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results, showing the feasibility and effectiveness of the designed low-profile tightly coupled dipole array antenna.