Arbitrarily polarized slot radiators in bifurcated waveguide arrays

The feasibility of obtaining arbitrary polarization in both one- and two-dimensional arrays of slots in dual mode bifurcated Waveguides has been demonstrated. The radiating element consists of a pair of crossed slots in the sidewall of a bifurcated rectangular waveguide that couple to even and odd waveguide modes. One linear polarization is excited by the even or "sum" mode and the orthogonal linear polarization is excited by the odd or "difference" mode. By superposing the sum and difference modes in the proper amplitude and phase, any arbitrary polarization can be realized. A two-dimensional array consisting of eight waveguide linear arrays, ferrite phase shifters for scanning in the plane normal to the linear arrays, and a feed network for power distribution and polarization control was constructed. Good radiation performance for various polarizations was obtained. In the case of linear polarization, the cross polarization component was on the order of -25 dB and in the case of circular polarization, the axial ratio was on the order of 1 dB. The polarization was controlled with a ferrite phase shifter. Close-in sidelobes of better than 20 dB were obtained for all polarizations. The preceding performance characteristics were obtained over a scan range of and over a 6 percent frequency band.