Investigation on wideband mm-wave microstrip antenna arrays

Microstrip antenna arrays are commonly employed in automotive radar systems in the mm-wave range. Their main advantages compared to other antenna arrays are the small dimensions and the low complexity of the design. However, at mm-wave frequency the fabrication inaccuracies of printed circuit board (PCB) technology can significantly affect the performances of an antenna array. For this reason, wideband antenna arrays are an appealing solution to increase the robustness of the radar systems. This work will deal with the investigation of proper design techniques to increase the bandwidth of microstrip antenna arrays while keeping a low design complexity and low cost of fabrication. The new design will be compared with standard patch arrays to prove the advantages of the proposed design techniques.