Wideband Quadruple-Differentially-Fed Aperture-Coupled Stacked Patch Antenna

Abstract

A wideband quadruple-differentially-fed (eight port) aperture-coupled stacked patch antenna (ACSPA) is presented in this paper. The proposed feeding configuration allows combining eight driving signals through four offset apertures coupled to a stacked patch antenna. Compared to conventional power combining approaches based on lossy power-combiners, either implemented at the printed circuit board (PCB) or the monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) level, the proposed on-antenna power combining (OAPC) structure improves the efficiency, the transmitted power, as well as the heat dissipation. Furthermore, a wideband operation is achieved implementing resonant apertures in addition to the stacked patch antenna structure. As a proof of concept, a demonstrator of the quadruple-differentially-fed ACSPA operating at X-band was designed and fabricated. Simulation and measurement results validate this novel on-antenna power combining technic as well as its wideband characteristic (36 %).