A stair shaped meander-line feed beamforming patch antenna array for satellite applications

Abstract This work confers a novel beamforming meander-line feed, stair shaped, co-axial connector fed patch antenna array reasonable for satellite applications. Initially, a single element four-fold meander-line feed antenna structure, operating in a frequency range of 10.71 to 11.29 GHz, is discussed. This antenna is with a ground of dimensions 45 × 30 mm 2 and achieves a peak gain of 9.294 dBi at 11 GHz. Subsequently, a patch antenna array with two, four and six elements having a peak gain of 12.73 dBi, 15 dBi and 17.12 dBi, respectively at 11 GHz is also inspected. The proposed 6-element antenna array has overall ground dimensions of 67.5 × 90 × 2 mm 3 and a conducting material of aluminum with a thickness of 0.25 mm is exercised while an air spacing of 2 mm is maintained between the top and bottom planes. A compatible single element antenna structure is fabricated and the measured results are validated. A good agreement is also witnessed between the simulation and measured results. A study on the number of meander-line feed folds, surface current distribution, parametric variation, antenna array arrangement and performance characteristics is also conducted.