This paper presents a 10-element Rectangular Microstrip Array Antenna (10RMSAA) fed through a modified corporate feed network. The measured experimental results show that the bandwidth of the 10RMSAA is improved to 31.39% covering 9.14-12.54 GHz frequency range. The proposed antenna shows an improvement in gain with broadside radiation pattern. This microstrip array antenna can be used for X-band short-range microwave applications.

There has been a considerable interest in investigating the electromagnetic properties of microstrip antennas for about five decades. Recently, the use of microstrip antennas has become increasingly popular because of various inherent advantages. But one of the major weaknesses of microstrip antennas is their very narrow impedance bandwidth characteristics. To increase the bandwidth of microstrip antennas, several ways are proposed (Qing and Xue-Xia, 1995; and Yousefbeigi et al., 2008). Solbach and Litschke (2005) presented feed network design for broad banding of the array antenna, which is rather simple and effective in enhancing the bandwidth.

In this paper, we present a study on the 4-element Rectangular Microstrip Array Antenna (4RMSAA), 6RMSSA and 10RMSAA, fed by a modified corporate feed network, in which the network is used for power division and at the same time, for broad banding of the antenna array (Mallikarjun et al., 2009). The proposed feed network is simple and effective in enhancing the bandwidth.

Telecommunications Journal, Microstrip Array Antenna, X-Band Applications, Corporate Feed Networks, Electromagnetic Properties, Microstrip Coupler, Microwave Communication, Microwave Antenna Array, Microwave Applications, Vector Network Analyzer, Cross Polarization, Modern Communication System.