Proximity-Coupled Ku-Band Patch Array Antenna for Imaging Application

This paper deals with the development of a proximity-coupled Ku-band patch array antenna intended for imaging application. The proposed array antenna which is designed to work at Ku-band frequency is implemented as a sensing device to transmit and receive emitted electromagnetic waves. A proximity-coupled feeding technique is applied to excite the array antenna due to its advantages in improving bandwidth response and easy to achieve impedance matching condition. The array antenna is composed of eight square patches in a 2×4 array configuration and deployed on two layers of RT/Duroid 5880 dielectric substrate. After realization, the prototype of array antenna is experimentally characterized in an anechoic chamber. The result of measurement demonstrates that the prototype has the radiation characteristics comparable to the simulation. It has the measured reflection coefficient of –34.72 dB at the operating frequency of 14.8 GHz with the –10 dB impedance bandwidth of 980 MHz.