A Fully Additively Manufactured Low-Profile Cost-Effective Antenna Array Based on Tightly Coupled Monopole Arrays

This paper presents a cost-effective fully additively manufactured tightly coupled monopole array (TCMA) with a 6:1 operating bandwidth, covering 1.48 GHz to 8.90 GHz. The design achieves an active VSWR of less than 2.89 and demonstrates over 94% radiation efficiency when scanning to broadside. When scanning to 45° in the E-, D-, and H-planes, the array achieves a 5.57:1 bandwidth with an active VSWR of less than 3.9. By using advanced additive manufacturing techniques, the design overcomes limitations of conventional fabrication methods, offering a more cost-effective and flexible solution for broadband antenna arrays. To validate the design concept, a fully additively manufactured 4 × 4 active antenna array prototype was fabricated using low-cost selective laser melting and fused deposition modeling technologies. The active VSWRs of a center element, far-field patterns, and realized gain of the antenna array are tested, with measurements aligning with numerical analyses.