Compact Dual-Polarized Corrugated Horn Antenna for Satellite Communications

Abstract

In this article, a structure and design procedure of a novel compact dual-polarized corrugated horn antenna with high gain and a stable phase center for satellite communication is presented. The antenna incorporates an ortho-mode transducer (OMT), a mode converter, and a corrugated structure. The compact OMT section is designed to be fed by standard WR-75 waveguides. The proposed compact design utilizes only ten corrugated slots to yield a symmetric radiation pattern. The antenna impedance bandwidth (VSWR < 1.5) is 10.2 to 15 GHz. Furthermore, the antenna exhibits 14–17 dBi gain, a constant 30° half-power beamwidth (HPBW) radiation pattern, and less than 9 mm phase center variation over the operating frequency range. The aperture diameter is 7 cm and the total antenna length is 15 cm. Due to the aforementioned features, the proposed antenna is suitable as the feed reflector for both uplink and downlink satellite communications. The design is numerically and experimentally validated.