JIITA, vol.7 no.4, p.889-899 2023, DOI: 10.22664/ISITA.2023.7.4.889
Junho Yeo
Abstract: In this paper, the effects of placing a 3D printed radome on the performance of a 24 GHz RADAR antenna are analyzed. First, a 4 by 1 linear microstrip patch array antenna operating in the frequency range of 24.0 – 24.25 GHz with a shunt connected series feed network is designed on a HF-350F substrate (εr = 3.5, h = 0.254 mm, tan δ = 0.0029), as a reference RADAR antenna. Next, the 4 by 1 patch array antenna is placed inside a hollow hemi-sphere radome with a thickness of 3.724 mm. Polylactic acid (PLA), which is a commonly used material for fused deposition modeling (FDM) – type 3D printers, is chosen for the radome material. The effects of varying the radius of the hemi-sphere PLA radome on the input reflection coefficient, radiation patterns, and gain of the 4 by 1 patch array antenna are investigated. In this work, the distance between the array antenna and the hemi-sphere radome is the inner radius of the hemi-sphere radome.
Keywords: radome; radio detection and ranging (RADAR); patch array antenna; 3D printer; polylactic acid (PLA)
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