Design of Miniaturized Microstrip Patch Antennas Using Non-Foster Circuits for Compact Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna Array

The global positioning system (GPS) is a useful system in civilian and military applications. However, because of the weak signal, GPS receivers are vulnerable to interference caused by unwanted signals or intentional jammers. To alleviate this issue, a controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA) array can be employed to adaptively place radiation pattern nulls toward the direction of the signal interference. The performance of the CRPA array improves as the number of antenna elements increases. Therefore, antenna miniaturization is highly desirable for CRPA applications. We designed a compact CRPA array based on seven electrically miniaturized microstrip patch antennas (MPAs) on a 5-inch ground platform. We used a non-Foster matching circuit to match efficiently miniaturized MPAs on an FR-4 substrate. Experimental results show that the non-Foster matching circuit significantly improves such elements of antenna performance as return loss and antenna gain. In addition, we confirmed that the mutual coupling of the proposed CRPA array is less than -45 dB.