MSAT vehicular antennas with self scanning array elements

A new approach for designing low profile antennas for MSAT applications is presented. It is based on stacking two microstrip antennas that operate at two adjacent modes. The beam scanning is achieved by introducing a phase shift between the stacked elements and consequently a low cost self scan array element is developed. The concept is used to investigate two different antenna types: (1) a single element unit, with its phase shifter, that provides a moderate gain of about 7 dBic; and (2) a seven element array with a peak gain of about 14 dBic. Computed and measured data for each design are presented and discussed.