Beam-Steered Radiation from Amplifying Active Integrated Array Antenna

This paper presents the design and demonstration of an 1 x 2 corporate fed amplifying active integrated array antenna system through the analysis of three fundamental cases in support of a fixed beam-steered radiation, which is achieved only by varying the input impedance of array elements. Equivalent circuit approach to explain the mechanism for beam steering is presented and analyzed, which is found in connection with the phase difference induced by input impedance variation. Active devices are directly loaded by array elements, so as to provide an amplification of 12 dB in all the cases, completely eliminating the output matching network. Prototype for one case is fabricated and measured, which shows a close agreement with simulated results. With this analysis, a continuous beam scanning from -14 degrees to +10 degrees realized by embedding a varactor diode between drain terminal and array element input is also discussed.