Wide-Coverage Conformal Comb-Line Antenna Array With a Beam-Reconfigurable Feeding Network for K-Band Short-Range Sensing

초록

In this paper, a wide-coverage conformal comb-line antenna array with reconfigurable feeding network for short-range sensing for K-band millimeter-wave applications is presented. Unlike conventional designs that employ an even number of radiating elements, the proposed structure uses an odd number of elements to achieve miniaturization and adopts an integrated approach that combines horizontal and vertical parasitic elements to suppress beam tilting and broaden beam coverage. Specifically, horizontal parasitic elements shape the radiated-power distribution to effectively mitigate beam tilting, while vertical parasitic elements introduced from array theory extend the half-power beamwidth (HPBW) by about 21 degrees. Subsequently, four such antennas are arrayed and conformally integrated onto a cylindrical platform. Mode A operates with each of the four antennas driven individually. To further improve short-range sensing coverage, an additional Mode B is introduced, in which two adjacent antennas are excited in phase; to realize this, a beam reconfigurable feeding network is devised. The network is compactly mounted on the underside of the antenna, preserving the overall form factor, reducing blind zones, and enabling a total of eight beam modes with only four antennas. The overall size of the designed antenna is 3.48 & times; 3.48 & times; 3.64 lambda(3)(0), and the maximum gains of Modes A and B are 7.83 dBi and 7.35 dBi, respectively, while the HPBWs are 96.8 degrees and 69.7 degrees, respectively. The present work validates the antenna array and reconfigurable feeding network at the component level; full radar-level target detection is left as future work. The proposed antenna is expected to be a promising candidate for autonomous vehicles, industrial metrology, and security and surveillance.

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