Prototype Design of a Modular Ultrawideband Wavelength-Scaled Array of Flared Notches

A prototype modular ultrawideband wavelength- scaled array of flared notches has been designed, built, measured and validated with full-wave modeling tools. Wavelength-scaled arrays operate over ultrawide bandwidths with significantly-reduced element counts, maintaining a relatively-constant beam size by utilizing phased-array radiators of different size. The prototype phased array presented here is designed to operate over an 8:1 bandwidth (1-8 GHz), demonstrating a 12-degree beam capacity at 2 GHz, 4 GHz, and 8 GHz. The architecture achieves a reduction in element count by a factor of 6.4-only 160 elements per polarization as compared to a conventional 1024-element phased array of the same aperture size-at the cost of reduced beamwidth capacity in the higher frequency range. Performance metrics (active VSWR and radiation characteristics) of the wavelength-scaled array are measured and validated against full-wave simulations. The technology is presented as a viable alternative to more expensive conventional ultrawideband arrays with dense uniform element layouts.