Dual Circularly Polarized Broadband Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave Applications

Abstract

A planar dual circularly polarized (CP) broadband array is proposed in this letter. The antenna consists of two semicircular patches and two suspended metal posts. According to the investigation of our previous work, the circularly polarized mode generated by combining the patches and the metal posts can achieve very wideband CP radiation. In order to achieve dual CP radiation with similar performance, a new antenna element is proposed with a centrally symmetrical configuration. The orthogonally crossed slot etched on the substrate-integrated waveguide cavity is used to excite the antenna element. A 4×4 array is designed, fabricated, and tested. Measured results show that a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 28.28% (26–34.6 GHz) and 30.61% (26–35.4GHz) is achieved for left-handed CP (LHCP) and right-handed CP (RHCP) radiation, respectively. The 3 dB gain bandwidth of 22.81% (26.4–33.2 GHz) and 24.50% (26–33.26 GHz) for these two polarizations is obtained. The proposed array demonstrates the feasibility of dual-polarized radiation. It features the advantage of wide bandwidth, easy integration, and low cost, which is very suitable for millimeter-Wave system applications.