Wideband microstrip-fed tapered slot antennas and phased array

Two wideband tapered slot antennas are designed, fabricated, and tested. The first antenna, which is fabricated on a high dielectric constant substrate (ε_r = 10.2), shows a measured return loss of better than 10 dB from 1.6 to 12.4 GHz (7.7:1 bandwidth), and an antenna gain varying from 3.6 to 7.8 dBi. The second antenna is built on a low dielectric constant substrate (ε_r = 2.2), and demonstrates return loss of better than 10 dB from 1.8 to 15.2 GHz (8.4:1 bandwidth). The second antenna also has improved antenna gain, from 5 to 15.6 dBi, and is used to build a wideband 1 × 4 H-plane phased array with a total gain of 9-17 dBi and a beam steering angle of ±15° from 3 to 12 GHz.