Polyimide film is a practicable alternative to the conventional substrates utilized in conformal antennas. Due to its flexibility, the antennas based on the polyimide film can be easily conformed to the platform surface. An eight-element linear-phased array operating at the P-band with a wide scan angle is investigated in this letter, which is constructed by the dipoles printed on the polyimide film. The antenna surface is mounted on the front wing of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Strong coupling is observed between the array elements when the beam scans. Therefore, decoupling structures are loaded in the array elements to broaden the scan angle. To satisfy the requirement of the radar system, directors and reflectors are also employed on the surface of the front wing to narrow the main lobe beamwidth in the elevation plane. The proposed phased array achieves a fractional bandwidth of 16.7% when scanning up to ±60° in the E-plane. The validity of this design is verified by the simulation and measurements of a 1 × 8 array prototype.

中文翻译：

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基于聚酰亚胺薄膜的无人机雷达宽扫描共形相控阵天线

聚酰亚胺薄膜是共形天线中使用的传统基板的可行替代品。由于其柔韧性，基于聚酰亚胺薄膜的天线可以很容易地贴合平台表面。在这封信中研究了一个在 P 波段工作、扫描角宽的八元素线性相控阵，它由印刷在聚酰亚胺薄膜上的偶极子构成。天线表面安装在无人机 (UAV) 的前翼上。光束扫描时，阵元之间观察到强耦合。因此，在阵列元件中加载去耦结构以扩大扫描角度。为了满足雷达系统的要求，在前翼表面还采用了导向器和反射器，以缩小仰角平面的主瓣波束宽度。当在 E 平面中扫描高达 ±60° 时，所提出的相控阵实现了 16.7% 的部分带宽。该设计的有效性通过 1 × 8 阵列原型的仿真和测量得到验证。