A Novel Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array With 2D Wide-Angle Beam-Scanning Capability for Millimeter-Wave Applications

A scalable and cost-effective phased array architecture based on dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) technology is presented for millimeter-wave applications. The proposed dome-on-cylinder DRA elements, encapsulated in a thermally conductive metal frame and excited through a suitable feeding network integrated into a multilayer PCB stack-up, enable two-dimensional wide-angle beam steering with minimized scan loss. A 64-element array prototype operating in the 24-GHz ISM radar band demonstrates 2D beam scanning up to ±70° in the E-plane and ±65° in the H-plane, with H-plane scan loss following an approximate cos<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.4</sup>(θ<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">_s</i>) dependence, significantly lower than the conventional cosine law. The same metal frame and high-thermal-conductivity DRA cores provide an efficient heat removal path, yielding at least an eightfold decrease in thermal resistance compared to an equivalent stacked microstrip patch array architecture, so that the aperture acts as a complementary heatsink. The electromagnetic and thermal performance of the array are validated through full-wave simulations and measurements of S-parameters, embedded-element and scanned-beam patterns, and steady-state temperature distributions, confirming the suitability of the proposed platform for high-power, wide-angle mm-wave communication and remote sensing systems.