Design of an End-Fire Efficient Superdirective Electrically Small Antenna Array

Abstract

This paper presents the design of an efficient end- fire parasitic superdirective array based on an electrically small antenna (ESA) (ka ≈1). The unit element is internally loaded with two inductances. With those loads the antenna exhibits an impedance bandwidth of 11 % with a radiation efficiency greater than 96 % in the whole frequency band of interest. The ESA based superdirective array achieves a maximal end-fire directivity of 9.3 dB at 780 MHz with a radiation efficiency greater than 80%. To validate the simulation results, a prototype was fabricated and measured. The measurement are in a good agreement with simulation.