Design of an active microstrip array using a microwave circuit simulator

An active antenna array design and simulation of this design with a microwave circuit simulator are presented. This active antenna array is a TV receive only (TVRO) antenna operating at 10 GHz. It is a 8x4 array of rectangular microstrip patch antennas. Eight low noise pHEMTs are placed in the antenna. Passive antenna characteristics are usually obtained by analytical techniques or using special softwares for this purpose. The numerical representation as well as the nonreciprocal nature of the active device necessitates the use of a circuit simulator. In this work, both the antenna and the active circuit characteristics are obtained in the same medium, using microwave circuit simulator LIBRA. The array structure is simulated with LIBRA for gain, noise temperature, radiation pattern, directivity and bandwidth.