A Novel Tightly Coupled Dipole Array Unit Cell

A novel ultrawideband tightly coupled dipole array (TCDA) unit cell is presented. The proposed design uses spiral based coupling elements between the tips of the dipoles unlike capacitive coupling employed frequently in the design of TCDA's. The proposed unit cell delivers 1:4 bandwidth under 10 dB active S-parameter in the infinite array environment, similar to those with known design approaches. However, this proposed unit cell is capable of better control of resonance condition by employing inductive capacitive hybrid coupling between tips of the dipoles compared to the traditional approach of single discrete capacitive coupling. The proposed TCDA unit cell is optimized such that it provides -10 dB active S-parameter in the 0.5-2.0 GHz frequency band. Finite array characteristics and scanning abilities are investigated.