Design of a subarray with special radiation pattern for low profile wide-angle scanning phased array

A low profile subarray with a special radiation pattern for the wide-angle H-plane scanning phased array is presented. Five parallel dipoles located above a metal ground serve as the radiator. The differential evolution (DE) algorithm is used to obtain the weights for a special radiation pattern, which is realized by a corresponding feed network. The overall dimension of the proposed subarray is only 0.55(0)x0.55(0)x0.14(0). The prototype is fabricated and measured, and the measurement results are consistent with the simulation results. Because of the special radiation pattern and compact size, this subarray is suitable as an element in the wide-angle scanning phased array. A uniform linear array consisting of five proposed subarrays is built in high frequency structural simulator, and the simulated results show that the main beam can scan nearly from -70 degrees to +70 degrees in the H-plane with a gain fluctuation less than 3 dB.