Phased array antenna system including a coplanar waveguide feed arrangement

A single-substrate phased array antenna system having a steerable antenna main beam which provides half-sphere coverage comprising:

• a substrate;
• a plurality of microstrip patch antenna elements disposed in rows and columns on the substrate to define a two dimensional phased array, the plurality of microstrip patch antennas being arranged into an array;
• a continuously variable phased delay transmission line feed structure including a coplanar waveguide having an overlay of a Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3 thin film;
• and
• a series-feed means connected to the array for enabling two independent variable DC voltages to control the phase delay between rows and columns of the two dimensional phased array and thereby the phase delay between each microstrip patch antenna element of the two dimensional phased array.

A wideband phase-scanned coplanar-waveguide antenna array, the antenna array having an impedance and a resonant frequency, at least one of the impedance and the resonant frequency of the antenna array being variable, the antenna array comprising:

• a substrate;
• a plurality of microstrip patch antenna elements disposed in rows and columns on the substrate thereby defining a two dimensional phase array;
• a continuously variable phase delay transmission line including a coplanar waveguide having an overlay of a nonlinear dielectric thin film of Ba.sub.x Sr.sub.1-x TiO.sub.3 material disposed thereon;
• a corporate feed means connected to the rows and columns for enabling two independent variable DC voltages to be applied to the nonlinear dielectric thin film to control the phase delay between the rows and columns of the two dimensional phased array and thereby the phase delay between each microstrip patch antenna element of the two dimensional phased array;
• and
• a quarter-wave transformer connected between the coplanar waveguide antenna elements and the corporate feed means to provide impedance matching, the impedance matching by the quarter wave transformer increasing the bandwidth of the antenna array.

A coplanar waveguide device comprising;

• a dielectric substrate,
• a coplanar waveguide disposed on a surface of the dielectric substrate, the coplanar waveguide having a pair of upper ground planes spaced apart from one another to define an elongated interval extending therebetween, a center conductor disposed in the elongated interval in the plane of and spaced apart from each of the upper ground planes,
• a lower ground plane disposed on a surface of the dielectric substrate opposite to the surface thereof upon which the coplanar waveguide is disposed;
• and
• a nonlinear dielectric thin film disposed on the coplanar waveguide, the dielectric constant of the nonlinear dielectric thin film being a function of a variable DC voltage applied to the nonlinear dielectric thin film, a change in the dielectric constant of the nonlinear dielectric thin film changing the effective dielectric constant of the coplanar waveguide and thereby the phase delay thereof.