Wideband array antenna concept

This paper presents a unique wideband array concept that includes a wideband array aperture incorporating radiating elements of different sizes and inter-element spacings. The array is a fully-filled aperture consisting of a core region surrounded by several layers of radiating elements which increase in size. By proper selection of the core region and the number of layers, one can form a beam with specified beamwidth over a five to one frequency range. The proposed concept considerably reduces the cost and complexity by decreasing the effective number of radiating elements and the corresponding receive or transmit modules. Numerical simulation results, ignoring the mutual coupling effects, are presented for array patterns at several frequencies to prove the concept. A possible beamforming concept is also included. Additional work is planned to prove the viability of the concept by taking the mutual coupling into account.