Wideband Planar Phased Array Antenna Based on Artificial Magnetic Conductor Surface

A wideband planar dipole array based on artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) surface is presented for phased array applications. One wideband in-phase hexagonal AMC cell is realized firstly. An X-band planar dipole is modified by employing a detached H-shaped patch and four L-shaped stubs for impedance bandwidth enhancement. The active VSWR with different scanning angles and the radiation pattern of center element in small array are simulated. For demonstration, a prototype of 45° linearly polarized array with the elements of 4 × 32 is fabricated and measured. From the measurements, it can provide a stable gain over the entire scan range of ±45° within 8-11 GHz. Meanwhile, the difference of two orthogonal polarization components keeps less than 3.5 dB below 11 GHz as the beam scanning. It shows good performance in low-profile and low cost phased array antennas.