Abstract
In this paper, a wideband cylindrical conformal microstrip antenna array
employing a proximity-coupled feeding mechanism with a cavity-backed
configuration is designed and fabricated. Compared with other conformal
microstrip patch antennas by using linear subarrays assembled piecewise,
this design uses Teflon instead of traditional dielectric layers, and
makes it possible to process the whole conformal array without splicing,
obtaining the freedom in unit size and array radius adjustment except
ease of manufacturing and assemblage. Combined with the optimization of
the cavity size, an array with 44 elements is obtained which has a
bandwidth of 40% from 8 to 12GHz and a gain of 16.4 dB.