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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3075887, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

A 24 GHz Microstrip Comb Array Antenna with

High Sidelobe Suppression for Radar Sensor
Jiawei Qian, Student Member, IEEE, Hao-Ran Zhu, Senior Member, IEEE, Min Tang, Member, IEEE,
and Junfa Mao, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—In this letter, a compact microstrip comb array the patch width [3]-[5]. Since the radiation patterns of each
antenna with high sidelobe suppression is presented for 24 GHz element are not strictly identical, this method may result in a
radar sensor. Based on printed circuit board (PCB) process, several
low gain and is effective only when the tapering difference is
series-fed microstrip comb lines are designed on the substrate to
form linear antenna arrays. Chebyshev distribution is adopted for not significant. Otherwise, the synthesized radiation pattern
nonuniform excitation of each antenna element to achieve a very would deteriorate seriously. In [6], a tapering method of the line
low sidelobe level (SLL). The excitation amplitude is adjusted by width was proposed to realize nonuniform amplitude, while the
tuning the feedline width between adjacent elements. Under such patch widths are kept fixed. Microstrip comb array, also called
circumstances, a slimmer array with a tapering distribution is as microstrip comb-line array, is another antenna structure for
realized. The proposed linear comb array consists of 8 elements, low-SLL design. In [9]-[16], series-fed microstrip comb arrays
and is further extended to 8×2 and 8×8 planar arrays to meet
different requirements. The proposed antenna arrays are verified with low SLL were proposed. In [9], some reflection-cancelling
by simulation and measurement, which are in good agreement. The slit structures were designed in the feedline to reduce reflection.
measured SLLs are better than -28 dB. The measured gains of 8×1, In [10], the current values of antenna elements were adjusted by
8×2 and 8×8 comb arrays at 24.125 GHz are 12.2 dBi, 15.0 dBi and feedline impedances. In [13], stubbed-element technique was
19.8 dBi, respectively. The return losses are better than 10 dB and reported to broaden the impedance bandwidth. Usually, the
the broadside gains maintains stable within the regulated Industrial
excitation variation of comb array is controlled by comb line
Scientific Medical (ISM) band from 24.00 to 24.25 GHz.
width, while few researches have focused on the technique of
Index Terms—Microstrip comb array antenna, radar sensor, feedline width taper.
series-fed, sidelobe level (SLL). In this letter, a compact microstrip comb array antenna with
low SLL is presented for 24 GHz radar sensor. The excitation
amplitude is adjusted by the feedline width between adjacent
I. INTRODUCTION elements, which can achieve a more tapering distribution. The

N
proposed linear comb array antenna consists of 8 elements, and
OWADAYS, advanced radar sensors have been applied in
is further extended to 8×2 and 8×8 planar arrays. These arrays
various domains such as automotive navigation, collision
are fabricated and measured with high SLL suppression.
warning, indoor localization, and vital sign detection. As a key
radiating component of the radar sensors, antennas have also
II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
been demanded for higher performance. An important feature
of these antennas is low sidelobe level (SLL) so as to enhance In this section, the design principle of microstrip comb array
anti-interference capability. For low-SLL purpose, series-fed antenna is described in detail. Based on printed circuit board
microstrip patch and comb arrays are widely used due to their (PCB) process, series-fed microstrip comb lines are designed
compact feeding networks and low transmission losses. on RO4350 substrate, whose thickness, dielectric constant and
To achieve a low SLL, considerable researches have been loss tangent are 0.254 mm, 3.66 and 0.004, respectively. The
carried out on series-fed microstrip patch arrays [1]-[8]. A proposed 24 GHz compact comb array antenna exhibits a very
typical method for realizing nonuniform excitation is to taper low SLL with Chebyshev distribution by tuning the feedline
the radiation efficiency of each antenna element by adjusting width between adjacent antenna elements. The antenna model
is simulated and optimized in full-wave electromagnetic solver
Manuscript received xx. This work was supported by Guangdong Provincial
High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS).
Key-Field Research Program (2018B010115001), and National Natural A. Antenna Configuration
Science Foundation of China under Grants (61801001, 61831016, and
61831006). (Corresponding authors: Hao-Ran Zhu; Min Tang.) The antenna configuration is shown in Fig. 1, where a linear
Jiawei Qian, Min Tang, and Junfa Mao are with the Key Laboratory of microstrip comb array is presented. The comb lines along the
Ministry of Education of China for Research of Design and Electromagnetic main feedline operate as radiating elements. It should be
Compatibility of High-Speed Electronic Systems, Shanghai Jiao Tong
mentioned that differing from the conventional design which
University, Shanghai 200240, China. (E-mail: [email protected]).
Hao-Ran Zhu is with the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Computing and treats each single comb line as an antenna element, a pair of
Signal Processing, Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, adjacent short strips is chosen as an antenna element in this
China. (E-mail: [email protected]).

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Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

λg/2 λg/2

λg/2
YAc(i-1) YAci
Yc0 Yci-1 Yci Antenna Fig. 3 The overall structure of conventional linear low-SLL microstrip comb
Element array antenna.
Fig. 1 Illustration of the proposed antenna array configuration.
GL TL1 L2 EW
L1
GW
EL

W8 TW1 W0 W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7

Fig. 4 Structure of linear low-SLL microstrip comb array antenna.

Based on the above derivation, it is obtained that the current

amplitude of adjacent elements can be tuned with the following
equation:
Ii Y
Fig. 2 Equivalent parallel circuit diagram of microstrip comb array.
 ni  ci ,  i  2,3...N  (6)
I i 1 Yc 0
work. By this means, the number of variations for excitation of
In our design, it is realized by changing the feedline width,
the antenna elements can be reduced by half.
which leads to some slits and bumps.
B. Principle of the Proposed Linear Antenna Array By contrast, in conventional designs the current amplitude is
As shown in Fig. 1, the excitation amplitude of the linear usually tuned by comb line width as shown in Fig. 3. The
microstrip comb array is adjusted by the feedline width instead characteristic admittances are determined by [14]:
of comb line width, which is realized by slits and bumps along Ii Y
 Aci (7)
the main feedline. To explain the design principle of this I i 1 YAc (i 1)
method, the equivalent parallel circuit diagram with N antenna
This equation indicates that the current amplitude of comb line
elements is provided in Fig. 2. The antenna element is
is proportional to its characteristic admittance. To realize a low
characterized by a radiation admittance YA. The main feedline is
SLL, the amplitude difference between the middle and
represented by a characteristic admittance Yc0, while the slits
marginal elements is very large. In this work, the ratio is
and bumps are represented by Yci (i=2, 3…N). Pi and Ii are the
1:0.1915, which is difficult to achieve due to the limited
radiation power and current amplitude of ith element,
variation range of characteristic admittance versus comb line
respectively. V is the input voltage amplitude, and ni denotes
width. Moreover, the radiation patterns of antenna elements are
the ratio of Yci to Yc0. The distances between each comb line and
not identical. If the amplitude tapering is sharp, comb lines
its length are both half guided wavelength λg/2 in order to
would become rather narrow or wide, and the synthesized
ensure in-phase feeding. The lengths of the slit and bump with
radiation pattern would deteriorate obviously.
Yci (i=2, 3…N) are a quarter guided wavelength λg/4 so as to
To overcome this problem, in our design the amplitude ratio
realize quarter-wave impedance transformation.
of two adjacent elements is tuned by feedline widths, while
According to the equivalent circuit diagram, the admittances
comb line widths are kept fixed. By this means, the proposed
shown in Fig. 2 can be calculated successively as [17]:
method can achieve a larger amplitude difference between the
Y2 middle and marginal elements by accumulation, which is
YN  cN2 YA  nN2 YA (1)
Yc 0 advantageous for better sidelobe suppression.
YN 1  YA  YN  1  nN2  YA (2) It is worth mentioning that based on the principles of both
designs, a combined method of feedline width taper and comb
2
Y line width control may provide more design freedom in the
YN1  YN 1  nN2 1YN 1  nN2 1 1  nN2  YA
cN 1
(3)
Y c0
2 low-SLL applications.
Thus, the input admittance Yin can be derived by: C. Design of Linear and Planar Low-SLL Microstrip Comb
Yin  1  n22  n22 n32  n22 n32 n42  ...  n22 n32 ...nN2  YA (4) Arrays
In general, the typical SLL of a uniform linear antenna array
Accordingly, the radiation power of element is calculated as:
is approximately -13.5 dB [15]. In our design, to obtain a low
1 2
 2 V YA ,  i  1
SLL (better than -25 dB), an 8-element 35-dB Chebyshev
1I2 distribution (0.1915:0.4636:0.7843:1:1:0.7843:0.4636:0.1915)
Pi    i (5)
 1 V 2 n 2 n 2 ...n 2Y ,  i  2,3...N  2 YA is implemented.
 2 2 3 i A
Fig. 4 presents the structure of 24 GHz linear microstrip

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Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

TABLE I
COMPARISON OF THEORETICAL AND OPTIMIZED VALUES L4
Width Characteristic Theoretical characteristic FW2
Unit TL3
(mm) impedance (Ohm) impedance (Ohm)
W0 0.8 38.9 -- FW3
W1 2.00 19.6 16.1
W2 1.8 21.3 23.0 FW4
W3 1.10 31.1 30.6
W4 0.86 37.1 38.9 FW5
W5 0.55 49.6 49.6 D2
W6 0.35 64.1 65.9 W8
W7 0.15 93.6 94.3 FW0 D3

D4
L3 TW2 FL
D5
FW1
TL2 D1
W8 W10 TW3
W9
Fig. 6 Structure of 8×8 planar low-SLL microstrip comb array antenna.
Fig. 5 Structure of 8×2 planar low-SLL microstrip comb array antenna.

comb array with Chebyshev distribution. As a standing-wave

antenna, there is no extra matching loads or vias [11], [12] in
terminal. For input matching, a quarter-wavelength impedance
transformation is implemented. The ground plane locates at the
back of PCB. For measurement setup with 2.92-mm end launch
connector, note that there are two grounded metal pads on the
edge. It should be mentioned that in practical applications, the
proposed microstrip comb array can also be fed by a metallic
via without additional feedline and grounded pads.
The width (W0) and characteristic impedance of the main (a)
feedline is 0.8 mm and 38.9 Ω, respectively. According to the
adopted Chebyshev distribution, theoretical width variations of
the slits and bumps (W1-W7) can be calculated. The linear
low-SLL comb array is further optimized by simulation. Table I
shows both theoretical and optimized values of characteristic
impedances with corresponding width. TL and TW represent the
sizes of the quarter-wavelength impedance transformer as: TL1
= 1.95 mm, and TW1 = 1.70 mm. The dimensional parameters
are determined as: EL = 4.34 mm, EW = 0.80 mm, GL = 5.70 mm,
GW = 4.30 mm, L1 = 6.28 mm, L2 = 1.37 mm, W8 = 0.54 mm.
In practical radar applications, planar arrays are preferred for
(b)
higher gain and two-dimensional scanning. Thus, in our work,
Fig. 7 Photographs: (a) fabricated comb array antennas and, (b) measurement
the linear low-SLL microstrip comb array is further extended to setup in an anechoic chamber.
8×2 and 8×8 planar arrays so as to meet the requirement. Their
structures are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, respectively. For 8×8 III. MEASUREMENT
planar array, the same design principle of amplitude tapering as For verification of the proposed low-SLL microstrip comb
linear array is implemented in the feeding network to achieve a array antenna, three prototypes were fabricated and measured.
low SLL in E-plane. Similarly, an 8-element 35-dB Chebyshev Fig. 7(a) shows both linear and planar comb arrays, which were
distribution is employed, which introduces some bumps in the fed by end launch co-axial connectors. The antenna arrays were
feedline of subarrays. The distances between subarrays (D3-D5) measured in an anechoic chamber, as shown in Fig. 7(b). To
are one guided wavelength in theory to ensure in-phase feeding, avoid the flexing of prototypes, the PCBs were supported by a
but they are further optimized by simulation. The dimension hard foam board during the measurement.
parameters are determined as: D1 = 6.90 mm, D2 = 6.90 mm, D3
= 7.40 mm, D4 = 7.40 mm, D5 = 7.52 mm, L3 = 4.85 mm, L4 = A. Impedance Bandwidth and Broadside Gain
4.50 mm, TL2 = 1.97 mm, TW2 = 1.40 mm, TL3 = 1.9 mm, TW3 = The measured results of the proposed comb array antennas
1.35 mm, W9 = 0.20 mm, W10 = 0.20 mm. FL and FW represent are shown in Fig. 8. In the working frequency range from 24.00
the sizes of the feedline between subarrays as: FL = 1.85 mm, to 24.25 GHz, the measured return losses of both linear and
FW0 = 0.20 mm, FW1 = 0.30 mm, FW2 = 1.00 mm, FW3 = 0.58 mm, planar comb arrays are better than 10 dB, indicating a good
FW4 = 0.34 mm, FW5 = 0.50 mm. impedance match. Compared with simulation, it is observed

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Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

TABLE II
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT LOW-SLL ANTENNA ARRAYS
Frequency Number of Realized Gain
Ref. SLL (dB)
(GHz) Element (dBi)
[2] 24.125 1×26 -24.7 16
[9] 76.5 2×27 -17.9 20.3
[13] 28 1×12 -23.7 15.1

(a) [14] 24 1×33 -20 19

This
24.125 1×8 -28.2 12.2
work

while 8×2 and 8×8 planar arrays reach to 15.0 dBi and 19.8 dBi,
respectively. Their gains maintain stable versus frequency and
agree well with simulation. The simulated radiation efficiency
is 58.8%

(b) B. Radiation Patterns

Fig. 9 shows the measured radiation patterns of low-SLL
comb array antennas at 24.125 GHz. The SLL of linear comb
array in H-plane is -29.4 dB, while the 3-dB beam widths in
E/H-planes are 75° and 14°, respectively. For 8×2 planar comb
array, the SLL in H-plane is -28.6 dB, while the 3-dB beam
widths in E/H-planes are 40° and 14°, respectively. For 8×8
planar comb array, the SLLs in E/H-planes are -28.5 dB and
(c)
-28.2 dB, while the 3-dB beam widths in E/H-planes are 14°
Fig. 8 Measured results of comb array antennas: (a) linear array, (b) 8×2 planar and 15°, respectively. Obviously, the measured SLLs maintain
array and, (c) 8×8 planar array. at a very low level, which well validates the proposed low-SLL
antenna design.
For comparison, Table II presents the performance of our
design and some reported series-fed low-SLL antenna arrays. It
is observed that the proposed series-fed comb array antenna can
achieve a lower SLL than previous works with compact size,
which is rather suitable for radar sensor applications.

IV. CONCLUSION
(a)
In this letter, a compact series-fed microstrip comb array
antenna with high sidelobe suppression is presented for 24 GHz
radar application. Using PCB process, a series of microstrip
comb lines are designed and Chebyshev distribution is realized
by tuning the feedline width between adjacent elements. By this
means, a slim antenna array with a large tapering distribution is
obtained for a low SLL. The linear comb array is further
(b) extended to planar arrays for meeting different requirements.
The measured and simulated results agree well, indicating that
the proposed antenna design achieves a satisfying SLL.

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Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

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