Abstract
High dielectric electromagnetic band gap (EBG) substrates can be used in patch antenna configurations to reduce size and mitigate substrate modes propagation with reasonable radiation efficiency values (ηrad > 0.55). Furthermore, EBG substrate structures applied in array configurations are able to avoid grating lobes and scan blindness phenomena as distance and coupling between patch antenna-radiating elements can be reduced at the same time. In this paper, a 2 × 2 array configuration using Zirconium Tin Titanate EBG substrate with high dielectric constant is presented. The array has been simulated showing 9 dB coupling reduction obtained by the inclusion of the EBG substrate in between the patch antennas placed to a distance lower than 0,5λ0. This short distance together with the coupling reduction results in a configuration which does not suffer from grating lobes and scan blindness problems, obtaining a 30º scan angle for the 2 × 2 configuration which is the maximum achievable angle due to a 2 × 2 array factor. A scan angle larger than 70º can be seen for the infinite configuration.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through projects TEC 2009-11995 and CONSOLIDER EMET- CSD2008-00066.