Design and Simulation of a Ku-Band Array Antenna Feed Network Based on Novel Ridge-Gap Waveguide Technology

Array antennas have many applications in civil and military systems such as: radar, surveillance systems, direction finders, electronic warfare (EW), etc. Feed network is one of the main parts of array antennas. In this paper a 1:8 corporate feed network based on the new waveguide technology referred to as ridge gap waveguide (RGW) at Ku band is designed and simulated which can be extended to any arbitrary 1:N feed network. The main advantages of RGW technology are: low loss, broad bandwidth, low sensitivity to manufacturing errors, usability at high frequencies like millimeter waves, easy integration of active components, etc. Return loss of the simulated feed network is better than -15 dB at 15-18 GHz frequency band. Furthermore, the insertion loss from the input to each output is almost -9dB which is as expected, and also the change of phase difference from input to each output is less than 1 degree.