A novel frequency beam-steering antenna array at Y-band

In this article, a novel frequency beam-scanning phased array antenna operating at Y-band is presented. The proposed antenna is a travelling-wave antenna, with cavity-backed patch arrays as the radiating elements. The array generates a very narrow beam (less than 2.5°) at the broadside of the antenna with ±25° steering capability. A prototype of the antenna is fabricated using silicon micromachining with high level of accuracy and low mass and cost. Moreover, a novel waveguide-probe near-field measurement setup is introduced and utilized to characterize the radiation characteristics of the micromachined beam-steering antenna and an excellent agreement between the measurement and full-wave simulation results is shown.