Compact wideband circularly polarized horn antenna with tapered slot‐coupled feeding for Ku‐band applications

Abstract

A compact wideband circularly polarized (CP) horn antenna with slot‐coupled feeding structure at Ku band for satellite communication is devised. The proposed design is based on a square aperture horn antenna with two orthogonal ridges, which is fed by nonuniform curved slot along the diagonal of the horn on the bottom cavity. And in order to improve the impedance matching, a staircase typed ridge is connected the feeding probe as a matching network. Moreover, two orthogonal ridges are excited with a tapered slot coupled by the staircase ridges via feeding probe. Wideband CP performance is achieved with an overall physical dimension of 9 mm × 9 mm × 14 mm (0.045λ0 × 0.045λ0 × 0.07λ0 at frequency of 15 GHz). It is experimentally demonstrated that the proposed antenna achieves: a wide 10‐dB return loss bandwidth of about 2.4 GHz, a 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 1 GHz, and a peak gain of 6.5 dBi.

Three‐dimensional printed wideband, dual‐cavity Ku‐band antenna

“…Although, Bull's eye antennas in 3D printing were mostly developed for V‐band applications where manufacturing tolerances severely affect the antenna production, they can be as well applied to Ku‐band applications where low‐profile and light‐weight features for on‐the‐move satellite communication terminals become crucial . Tapered slot‐fed antenna structures have shown to exhibit wideband and relatively high‐gain antenna features . In most Bull's eye antenna designs, multiple corrugations are chosen to increase the antenna directivity.…”

“…4,5 Tapered slot-fed antenna structures have shown to exhibit wideband and relatively high-gain antenna features. 6,7 In most Bull's eye antenna designs, multiple corrugations are chosen to increase the antenna directivity. The coupling between the corrugations and the location of corrugations play a vital role in directivity improvement.…”

Additively manufactured trapezoidal grooves for wideband and high gain Ku‐band antenna

“…Furthermore, directive gain over a fractional bandwidth of 30% or more is very difficult to obtain due to wavelength dependency of in‐phase radiation. Satellite communication and direct‐broadcast satellite applications at Ku and Ka bands demand wide bandwidth and high gain in relatively small antenna form factor …”