A wide-beam array antenna using shorted-end curved dipoles on a reflector plane

This paper presents a wide-beam array antenna for broadcasting station by using two curved dipoles, which its both ends of each dipole are electrically shorted on the surface of a square conducting reflector and connected to the ground system and the feed point is excited at the center of each one. Advantage of this antenna should possess physically strong structure, easy fabrication, and cost effectiveness. Because of the elements of array are made of the straight dipoles, which their arms are curved for enlarging the beamwidth and shorted on a metallic reflector for increasing total directive gain and robusting the structure. The Method of Moment (MoM) is utilized to solve numerically the electrical currents that distribute along the curved dipole, which are used to determine the impedance characteristics and the radiation patterns of this antenna. The beamwidth of azimuth pattern of the proposed antenna is around 12°, which is suitable for achieving omnidirectional pattern for TV broadcasting station by placing them around the tower at least three panels. Having confirmed the validity of this approach, the UHF-band antenna prototype is fabricated, tested experimentally and shows good performance.