Beam Steerable Array Antenna Based on Rectangular Waveguide for High-Power Microwave Applications

A high power, high gain, and beam-steerable array antenna for high-power microwave applications is presented in this paper, which is fed by rectangular waveguides. A C-shaped slot on the narrow wall of the rectangular waveguide is applied to couple energy from the waveguide to the helical unit, which is used to radiate circularly polarized microwave. 2-D beam scanning is achieved through fewer control units. Simulation results indicate that a 2-m-long linear array achieves a gain of 26.3 dB, an aperture efficiency of 90.43%, and a power-handling capacity of 96.5 MW. A prototype of 20 x 15 array shows the beam scanning range is about +/- 35 degrees in both typical vertical planes, while the gain decreases by less than 2.0 dB.