A Wideband High-Gain Circularly-Polarized Dielectric Horn Antenna Equipped With Lamé-Axicon Stacked-Disk Lens for Remote Sensing, Air Traffic Control and Satellite Communications

Abstract

A wideband high-gain circularly polarized (CP) shaped dielectric horn-lens antenna (SDHLA) operating in the frequency band between 6.7 and 18.2 GHz [fractional impedance bandwidth (FIBW) of 92.4%] with a 3-dB axial-ratio in the frequency range from 8.1 to 16.3 GHz [fractional axial-ratio bandwidth (FARBW) of 67.2%], is presented. The antenna, composed of a suitably shaped dielectric horn, integrated with a super-ellipsoidal-axicon dielectric lens made out of stacked thin dielectric disks, is mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) where a microstrip line terminated with a wideband radial stub is used to excite a S-shaped slot through which the circular polarization is achieved. Parameterized 3D Lamé curves, describing the horn and lens profile, are used to optimize the antenna design. The antenna features a peak realized gain exceeding 13.1 dBi that is beneficial in a variety of applications, such as digital video broadcasting (DVB), remote sensing, weather monitoring, satellite communications, and air traffic control. The full-wave electromagnetic solver CST Studio Suite™, based on a locally conformal finite integration technique (FIT), was employed to design and characterize the antenna whose performances were found to be in good agreement with the experimental measurements.</p