Compact Dual-Polarization Quad-Ridge Horn

• Published in: IEEE antennas and wireless propagation letters Vol. 22; no. 12; pp. 3142 - 3146
• Main Authors: Pitol, Augusto R., Muller, Candice, Arigony, Mario S. V., Barth, Christian M., Gerhardt, Lissandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna array; Antenna arrays; Antenna design; Antenna feeds; Antenna measurements; Antennas; Bandwidth; Dual polarization (waves); dual-polarization (dual-pol); Horizontal polarization; horn antenna; Horn antennas; Phase shifters; Power dividers; quad-ridge; Steerable antennas; Stripline; stripline feeding; Vertical polarization
• ISSN: 1536-1225; 1548-5757
• DOI: 10.1109/LAWP.2023.3312020

This letter presents a compact dual-polarization quad-ridge conical horn (DPQRH) antenna. Different from classical solutions, the proposed antenna adopts a nonuniform step ridge profile. One of the main novelty of the antenna is the feeding system, a stripline-based orthomode transducer solution. The proposed stripline feeding increases the similarity between vertical and horizontal polarization results and allows the easy integration of the antenna with power dividers, phase shifters, and other passive and active components. The easy integration with other components allows the application of the proposed solution to the design of steerable antenna arrays. The DPQRH has been prototyped with milled aluminum and measured. Simulation results and measurement are compared. The measurements satisfactorily validate the simulations. Measurement results show that DPQRH antenna presents a fractional bandwidth of approximately 24%, port-to-port isolation above 17.5 dB, return loss above 10 and 12 dB, for ports 1 and 2, respectively, from 5.08 to 6.425 GHz.