Polarization Matched Radiating Array for Electronically Steered Phased Array Antenna

Abstract

A polarization matched 2×2 radiating array for electronically steered phased array antenna is presented. The antenna array is a multi-layer structure consisting of four square microstrip patch elements grown on each substrate to provide wide band operation at S-band. Dual polarizations of radiated wave from the antenna array have been achieved by feeding the array in series fed mode through horizontal and vertical ports. Designed 2 × 2 S-band dual polarized series fed antenna has been optimized on a finite element based ANSYS HFSS full wave solver. Controlling the amplitude of RF signal at input ports, the polarization can be matched to the target antenna polarization, hence antenna can work as polarization matched antenna. Gain of the developed antenna is 13 dBi, and the return loss is better than 10 dB over the frequency range of 2.3 to 2.5 GHz. This antenna can be used as radiating array for electronically steered phased array for S-band SOTM (SATCOM On The Move) application where the polarization of the antenna changes with movement of host platform.