Design of a low side lobe aperture coupled microstrip antenna array

A microstrip patch antenna that is coupled to a microstrip line by a slot in the intervening ground plane have been designed. The design was carried out using parametric study on MOM and FEM based EM analysis tools. A Ku-band 20 dB Dolph-Chebyshev array with 8 by 8 elements was designed and fabricated. Special attention is given for the design of feed network for the array. Discontinuities compensation techniques were applied to reduce the reactive behavior of the T junctions and bends. Both simulated and measured results are presented and compared. The results show good match between design and measurements. The aperture coupled antenna can be used for integrated antenna arrays at millimeter wave frequencies.