A Vertical Polarized Endfire Phased Array Antenna With Wide-Angle Scanning Using Heterogeneous Beam Elements

This communication presents a novel vertical polarized (VP) endfire phased array antenna (PAA) using heterogeneous beam elements (HBEs) for wide-angle scanning, where the HBE is a specially designed element with an inclined beam. First, the proposed low-profile and wideband endfire VP element is achieved by implementing an open-end cavity radiator with three slots. Additionally, by tilting the aperture of the VP element to realize gradient phase distribution, the HBE with an inclined beam is obtained, which is then used to form a VP HBE PAA. The desired array layout is achieved by adjusting the tilting angles of individual HBEs. Finally, a <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1× 4 </tex-math> -element VP HBE PAA is designed, fabricated, and measured, exhibiting a 3-dB gain variation scanning range of ±72° across the entire 5G n258 band (24.25–27.5 GHz). Compared to the standard design, the VP HBE PAA provides an extended scanning range of ±12° while maintaining the same array size, with only a minimal decline of approximately 0.8 dBi in broadside realized gain. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed design achieves the widest scanning range compared to its predecessors.