A High Directivity Beam-Steering Parasitic Antenna Array

A printed antenna with parasitic patches on a superstrate is proposed to achieve a high directivity, while beam-steering is carried out by tuning the reactive loads. The proposed antenna array consists of a classical patch antenna on one layer, stacked with multiple parasitic patches on another layer. The parasitic patches are connected by variable reactive loads. Values of the variable reactive elements required to steer the beam in a given direction are determined by using efficient methodology. The main beam can be steered from -9 degrees to +9 degrees around broadside of the array while maintaining a high directivity of 18.5 dBi and a side-lobe level of -11 dB.