Title :
Lightweight Portable Planar Slot Array Antenna for Satellite Communications in X-Band
Author :
González, J. M Fernández ; Padilla, P. ; Expósito-Domínguez, G. ; Sierra-Castañer, M.
Author_Institution :
Signals, Syst. & Radiocommun. Dept., Tech. Univ. of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
fDate :
7/3/1905 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A lightweight portable planar slot array antenna at X-band for fixed satellite communications is presented in this letter. The terminal is composed of two radial-line slot antennas (RLSAs) with the slots placed on the upper layer in spiral: one for reception (RX) band with left-handed circular polarization (LHCP), and the other one for transmission (TX) band with right-handed circular polarization (RHCP). A lightweight two-layer dielectric structure is used to achieve and optimize the RLSA weight. The radiating element is a slot pair, designed to provide circular polarization. The feeding network consists of a 50-Ω SMA connector for each RLSA. A radiation efficiency of more than 70% is achieved due to the low dielectric constant substrate. Finally, measurements of the lightweight portable planar RX/TX antenna prototypes are presented and compared to simulations, where very good agreement is observed.
Keywords :
antenna radiation patterns; planar antenna arrays; satellite communication; slot antenna arrays; SMA connector; X-band; feeding network; left-handed circular polarization; lightweight portable planar slot array antenna; lightweight two-layer dielectric structure; radial-line slot antennas; radiating element; reception-transmission antenna prototypes; right-handed circular polarization; satellite communications; Antenna measurements; Antenna radiation patterns; Arrays; Prototypes; Satellite antennas; Slot antennas; Lightweight antenna; X-band; planar antenna; portable antenna; radial-line slot antenna (RLSA); satellite communications; slot array antenna;
Journal_Title :
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LAWP.2011.2178584
