Abstract
A reduced size dual beam antenna system is presented in this paper. The design of scaled down antenna system with a dual beam capability is realized by using a single Butler matrix instead of cascaded Butler matrices. The signals from output ports of the Butler matrix act as a beamforming network with narrow beam width for long distance communications (LDC), whereas signals from the output port of each Wilkinson Power Divider have broad beam width, which is suitable for short range communications (SRC). Hence, 50% size reduction in the overall beamforming network structure is achieved while still maintaining the same dual beam capabilities, like cascaded Butler matrices structure. The produced narrow beams have an angular width of approximately 27.3 degrees each, while the broad beams have an angular width of about 97.7 degrees each. The proposed antenna has an enormous potential in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications, particularly in intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications.