An 8×8 lightweight flexible multilayer antenna array

A lightweight flexible multilayer 8×8 antenna array has been designed, fabricated, and measured. The results show 16.9 dB of gain with the loss originating mainly from the line loss of the corporate feed network. Using via hole technology, ‘stitching’ of two 4×8 sub-arrays have been achieved with minimal RF performance degradation. In addition, the array has been measured on a cylinder with a radius of 6.5 cm as a verification of its flexibility and the results show negligible performance change due to mechanical distortion.