A 3D printing and printed circuit board (PCB) hybrid fabricated modularized dual-stopband artificial magnetic conductor (AMC)-loaded filtering antenna is proposed for an X-band high-power radar system.By loading low-cost microstrip AMCs of different frequency responses into a waveguide slot array, we achieve a modularized filtering antenna whose frequency response can be simply controlled by replacing different AMCs. The waveguide slot array only works as a fixture to host different AMCs to achieve various filtering antenna frequency responses. The interchangeable modularized design helps to reduce the difficulty and cost of component fabrication by eliminating the need for complex resonant cavities inside the waveguide filtering antenna, which is time-efficient at the stage of product prototyping when numerous iterations are needed on a trial-and-error base. A dual-stopband filtering antenna is designed and fabricated in the X-band to verify the design concept. The passband covers 9.25-10.6 GHz with the passband gain greater than 10 dBi. The antenna radiates frequency-dependent scanning beams in the passband. The stopbands are 8.1-9 GHz and 10.75-11.5 GHz, and the out-of-band rejection is larger than 35 dB. The proposed design concept provides a different thought to achieve a low-cost filtering antenna by using interchangeable modularized components. The fabricated antenna prototype is a capable candidate for high-power airborne radar applications.
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