Circularly Polarized Millimeter Wave Frequency Beam Scanning Antenna Based on Aperture-Coupled Magneto-Electric Dipole

Abstract

Based on the newly suggested wideband circularly polarized (CP) aperture-coupled magneto-electric dipole (MED), a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency-scanned array (FSA) is proposed in this article. The MED is printed on two substrate layers. The electric dipole is two metal patches with perturbation structure, while the magnetic dipole is two rows of metal vias passing through the top substrate layer. The electric and magnetic dipoles, fed by a coupling slot, excite CP wave. By loading an arc-shaped vias row (AVR) at both ends of the magnetic dipole, the CP bandwidth with axial ratio (AR) less than 3 dB is extended to 40.9%. A new compact wideband transition from the rectangular waveguide (RWG) to the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is suggested as the feed structure for the CP FSA. A slow wave structure is etched on the ground of SIW to widen the beam scanning range. A 16-element array is designed and measured. The measured results show that the beam scanning range is 56° over 23–33 GHz band with a peak gain of 19.5 dBi. The CP mm-wave FSA has the advantages of wide scanning angle, low profile, and easy fabrication.