Printed slotted waveguide array antenna

Abstract

Beam tilted circularly polarized printed slotted waveguide array antenna (PSWAA) with compound slots is proposed. The printed configuration replaces the top-wall of a rectangular waveguide. Both right and left hand circular polarizations can be independently realized with the proposed configuration to create a polarization agile antenna. An array of 6 elements with uniform spacing is realized in C-band with a gain of 10.2 dB. The main beam is tilted to 30 ⁰ by optimizing the spacing between the elements. The grating lobes arising due to large inter element spacing are suppressed by loading the waveguide with dielectric. Printed slots on the top wall reduce the fabrication difficulties to realize this configuration at high frequency. Antenna demonstrates wideband axial ratio of less than 3 dB over wide angle of coverage.