Design of a high gain pencil beam dipole antenna using parasitic elements in X-band

Using parasitic elements in different configurations, many parameters of an antenna can be modified. Most of these approaches were found to alter the fundamental characteristics such as input impedance, gain, polarization and radiation pattern of an antenna. Array antennas with high gain comprise of complex feed distribution which is a major hurdle design at higher microwave frequencies. Using parasitic elements show promise in addressing the complexity of amplitude and phase distribution in a very large array. Simulated results during research using parasitic elements with a dipole has shown promise in achieving desired radiation pattern characteristics without employing a complex feed network. The gain and beamwidth are both optimized to obtain the desired solution for a narrow beam high gain antenna providing high isolation when used in a bistatic configuration. The effect of parasitic elements on a dipole in relation to gain is also discussed; based on which an analytical model is proposed for the design in X-Band.