A new waveguide slot array antenna with high isolation and high antenna bandwidth operation on Ku- and K- Bands for radar and MIMO systems

In this paper a novel technique is proposed to reduce the mutual coupling between the radiating elements of a waveguide slot array antenna. This is achieved by inserting slots between the waveguide oval shaped slots. The reference waveguide array antenna used in the study was implemented with an arrangement of 3×5 oval shaped slots. By incorporating linear slots between the radiating oval shaped slots in both horizontal and vertical directions significant reduction in mutual coupling is achieved of 24 dB, 20 dB, and 32 dB in the frequency bands of 12.95-13.75 GHz (Ku-band), 15.45-16.85 GHz (Ku-band), and 18.85-23.0 GHz (K-band), respectively. Edge-to-edge distance between the slot radiators is 0.2λ, which is at least twofold smaller than conventional array antennas. With the slot isolators the antenna's minimum and maximum gains improve by 53.5% and 25.5%, respectively. In addition, the radiation patterns are unaffected. The proposed method is simple to implement, low cost solution mass production. © 2018 European Microwave Association.