A wide band 44 GHz printed circuit conformal array

A 16-element printed circuit array in four by four configuration was designed, developed, and tested at 44 GHz using stripline techniques. The array incorporated the Sanders wide band Tee-Fed Slot element with integral corporate power divider, and produced a well defined main beam in a broadside direction with sidelobes -16 dB or better from 43 to 45 GHz. The VSWR was measured to be less than 2:1 over the band and the gain measured at 17 dBi. Extended measurements of VSWR, E & H Plane patterns, and gain from 41 to 48 GHz showed VSWR no greater than 2.5:1 and gain to be no less than 16 dBi, with reasonable radiation patterns. The development methodology was to design, test, and evaluate all components and the array at 11 GHz and scale by four to 44 GHz taking into account the errors introduced by transmission line surface finish and dielectric properties. This procedure, together with well controlled fabrication techniques, yielded an array extremely high frequency whose electrical characteristics were nearly identical to those of the Super High Frequency array.