A left hand circularly polarized (LHCP) wideband antenna array based on artificial magnetic conductor for Ka-band applications

Abstract

A left-hand circularly polarized (LHCP) 2 × 2 array antenna is presented based on a modified artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) with improved gain and side lobe levels (SLLs). A single port modified sequentially rotated feed network combines the four corner truncated patch elements to achieve wider impedance bandwidth and axial ratio (A.R) bandwidth. The AMC array having wideband behavior consists of 9 × 9 unit cells with a single unit cell size of 2.4 × 2.4 mm2. The particular AMC-surrounded antenna array is simulated and manufactured using Rogers RT Duroid/5880 substrate and provides a wider bandwidth covering Ka-band (27 GHz to 32 GHz). The dimensions of the AMC integrated antenna array are 30 × 30 × 0.508 mm3. The proposed AMC shows in-phase reflection behaviors between (+ 90 and − 90) degree, from 27 GHz to 32 GHz. Combining the four-element antenna array with the AMC reflector improved the gain level of 0.7 dBi, 2.9 dBi, and 2.5 dBi at 28 GHz, 29 GHz, and 30 GHz, respectively. The simulated s-parameter (S11) and radiation patterns results are experimentally verified by measuring the prototype of the recommended antenna model. The proposed antenna array shows a stable gain variation and directive radiation patterns along 0o with low side lobe levels. Based on the performance, the proposed AMC-based antenna array can be an effective choice for the 3 U satellite applications in Ka-band.