High-isolation X-band marine radar antenna design

This paper presents a high-isolation printed antenna array for marine radar applications. The antenna array is composed of 32 identical square microstrip patches operated at a center frequency of 9.35 GHz and includes a 100-MHz bandwidth (subject to a 1.5:1 voltage standing wave ratio [VSWR]). The patch antennas are arranged in four arms, each of which contains eight elements and is series-fed using Chebyshev tapering (25 dB side-lobe level). To apply the antenna in marine radar applications, an antenna with horizontal polarization was employed because, in comparison with vertical polarization, it can relatively reduce the sea clutter reflectivity. Therefore, a slit was carved on each patch element to change the current path, thereby enabling horizontal polarization. The antenna gain, 3-dB beamwidth, side-lobe level, and front-to-back ratio were 22 dBi, 5.3°, 26.4 dB, and 38.5 dB, respectively. Additionally, metallic baffles were introduced for increasing the isolation between the transmitting and receiving antennas to 60 dB.