A Broadband W-Band Polarization Rotator With Very Low Cross Polarization

We present a 82-100 GHz circular waveguide polarization rotator based on a broadband rotating half-wave retarder. The device was designed for astrophysics experiments aimed to characterize the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The device is based on a Pancharatnam recipe used in optics and has a very low intrinsic cross polarization, very flat phase response across the band and very low losses. It can be used in astronomical experiments where very high performance is required but also as a variable polarization source for instrument calibrations. The design was manufactured and then tested using a millimeter-wave vector network analyzer. The average measured RL, IL and cross polarization across a 30% bandwidth were, respectively, -38 dB, -0.27 dB, and -36.5 dB.