Natl. Acad. Sci. Lett.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40009-019-00824-y
SHORT COMMUNICATION
A Fan-Beam Stacked Array X-Band Radar Antenna
R. Udaiyakumar1 • T. Janani1 • R. Vigneshram1 • R. Maheswar2 • Iraj S. Amiri3,4
Received: 9 October 2017 / Revised: 3 April 2018 / Accepted: 27 December 2018
Ó The National Academy of Sciences, India 2019
Abstract This short communication presents the design,
fabrication and the measured results of a stacked array
antenna for X-band radar applications. The antenna array is
comprised of 2 9 8 radiating elements to produce a fan
beam which is narrow in the azimuth and wider in the
elevation. The individual radiating elements of the array
utilize a stacked patch topology to achieve broad band-
width and high gain. The array elements are pin fed from a
microstrip corporate feed network designed on a substrate
placing beneath to conserve the broad space. The simula-
tion results show that the individual radiating element
operates from 10.0 to 10.6 GHz with - 10 dB return loss
bandwidth of 600 MHz, and realized gain of 6.3 dBi. A
2 9 8 array is then fabricated. The measured results show
that the antenna has Phi-0 beam width of 10° and a Phi-90
beamwidth of 30° with 17.1 dBi boresight gain. The
antenna is suitable for X-band applications like amateur
radio, amateur satellite, military, airborne and naval radars.
Keywords X-band
Stacked array
High gain

Radar antenna
Corporate feed network
& Iraj S. Amiri
irajsadeghamiri@tdtu.edu.vn
1
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
(ECE), Sri Krishna College of Technology, Coimbatore,
India
2
School of EEE, VIT Bhopal University, Bhopal, India
3 used for X-band radar applications.
Computational Optics Research Group, Advanced Institute of
Materials Science, Ton Duc Thang University,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
4
Faculty of Applied Sciences, Ton Duc Thang University,
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Relevance
The proposed antenna is a suitable candidate for the radar
community as it exhibits high gain and a wide scan range in
the elevation with a low-profile dimension facilitating it to
be a replacement for conventional huge radar antennas for
military, amateur radios and amateur satellite applications.
The most common beam shapes found in radar antenna
are the fan beam and the pencil beam. Radar intercept
equipment used in electronic combat employ essentially
fan beams that have been extended to simultaneously cover
some dozen degrees of azimuth and elevation. Planar array
antennas are in the limelight for radar applications in recent
days, wherein the array should be a broadband one with
high gain. Broadband stacked patch arrangements were
proposed in [1–5] followed by proximity parasitic elements
in [6].
Recently, fan-beam antennas were developed which
includes a dual polarized S-band antenna array in [7] and a
16-element phased array antenna with ± 14° azimuth
beamwidth and ± 22.5° fixed elevation angle in [8].
Although ultra-wideband antennas with frequency notching
[9] and multiband characteristics [10] were developed most
recently for wireless communication applications, there is
also an imminent need for low-profile high-gain radar
antennas to be developed and deployed to support future
radar communications. This short communication
describes the development of a planar low cost, light
weight 2 9 8 array of stacked patches which has a
broadband operation with high gain and a fan beam to be
A probe-fed square patch radiator is initially designed in
CST Microwave Studio. The dielectric material used is
Rogers—5870 with er of 2.33 with thickness
h1 = 0.508 mm. Figure 1a shows the simulated probe-fed
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 R. Udaiyakumar et al.

arrangement produces capacitive coupling between the

radiating and the parasitic elements thereby reducing the
quality factor of the total aperture to produce a broad
bandwidth. The parasitic element is of dimension L2 9 L2.
Figure 1b depicts the simulated stacked patch arrangement.
The simulated return loss comparison is shown in Fig. 2a
and is evident that the bandwidth has improved when
compared to the unstacked radiator for about 600 MHz
which is 5.8%.

Fig. 1 a Simulated patch, b simulated stacked patch, c simulated

stacked array, d fabricated prototype—front view, e back view and
f side view

square patch antenna at 10.25 GHz. The dimension of the

patch radiator is L1 9 L1. The impedance bandwidth of the
single unstacked radiator is 300 MHz from 10.1 to
10.4 GHz. To improve the bandwidth and the gain, a
stacked patch arrangement is utilized, wherein a parasitic
Fig. 2 a Comparison of simulated return loss of stacked and
patch is suspended over the radiating patch. The distance unstacked single patch configuration, b simulated versus measured
between the radiating and the parasitic patches is D. This return loss of the proposed stacked array antenna, c simulated and
measured gain of the stacked array antenna

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A Fan-Beam Stacked Array X-Band Radar Antenna

The antenna array is designed with 2 9 8 elements to

produce a fan beam that is narrow in the azimuth and wider
in the elevation to achieve a wide scan range in the ele-
vation angles. First, a 2 9 8 element array is made with the
patch elements that are spaced at k0/2 to achieve in-phase
superposition of generated waves which are designed on a
single-grounded substrate with er, 2.33. Second, the para-
sitic elements of the respective individual radiating ele-
ments made a 2 9 8 array on a single-sided substrate with
er, 2.33 and thickness 0.508 mm. The array of parasitic
elements is suspended over the radiating element array.
The distance of separation between the radiating and the
parasitic elements is D. The simulated stacked array
antenna is shown in Fig. 1c. The final dimension of the
fabricated antenna array prototype is M1 9 M2. Table 1
contains the dimensions of the presented stacked antenna
array arrived after optimization by the analytical equations
and by using CST Microwave Studio.
The array is fed by a 1:16 equally split corporate feed
network designed on Rogers—5870 substrate which is
placed back to back with the array of radiating elements.
The feed network is designed and optimized in CST
Microwave studio. Shorting pins connect the feed network
to the feeding points on the array elements. The clearance
for the shorting pins is provided in the ground planes of the
feed network and on the ground plane of the array. The
fabricated prototype of the 2 9 8 stacked array antenna is
shown in Fig. 1d–f. The parasitic element array is sus-
pended over the radiating element array by spacers.
The S-parameters of the fabricated prototype are mea-
sured and compared with the simulation and shown in
Fig. 2b. The - 10 dB return loss bandwidth of the antenna
is 600 MHz from 10.0 to 10.6 GHz showing good corre-
lation with the simulation.
Figure 2c shows that the gain of the developed antenna
varies between 17.1 and 16.8 dBi. Figure 3 shows the
measured radiation pattern from which the 3 dB beam
widths in Phi-0 and the Phi-90 cuts of the antenna are 10°
and 30°, respectively. The beamwidths being narrow in the
azimuth and wider in the elevation result in a fan beam Fig. 3 Measured horizontal and vertical radiation pattern of the
which is suitable for radar applications. Also, Table 2 proposed array antenna at a 10.0 GHz, b 10.3 GHz and c 10.6 GHz
provides the comparison of performance of the proposed
antenna with the recently reported works. patch arrangement has improved the bandwidth of indi-
A high-gain fan-beam stacked array radar antenna using vidual element to about 600 MHz from 10.0 to 10.6 GHz
simple stacked patch arrangement is presented. The stacked which when developed as 2 9 8 array resulted in a high
peak gain of 17.1 dBi, where the horizontal and vertical

Table 1 Dimensions of the proposed antenna

Parameter L1 L2 D M1 M2

Value in mm 7.2 5 3.8 135 38

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 R. Udaiyakumar et al.

Table 2 Comparison of performance

References Topology Bandwidth (MHz) Peak gain Beamwidth

[4] Stacked patch 240 4.5 dBic 150° Azimuth and 141° elevation
[6] Sequential rotated patch array 650 12.5 dBic 41° Azimuth and 38° elevation
[8] Linear patch array 200 14.4 dBi 28° Azimuth and 45° elevation
Proposed antenna Stacked patch array 600 17.1 dBi 10° Azimuth and 30° elevation

beamwidths degree of the antenna are 10 and 30 respec-
tively. The developed antenna is an excellent candidate for
X-band radar applications.
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