Fundamental design aspects for the development of a highly shaped antenna and breadboard measurements

The paper is concerned with the design and measurement of a highly shaped, circularly polarized X-band antenna for working on an environmental satellite in a low polar orbit (about 800 km height). The work was performed as a part of a subcontract under ESA, Polar Platform Program where ANT is responsible for the X-band-data transmission subsystem. The demand on constant flux on Earth leads to an antenna pattern with a wide illumination angle (+/- 60 deg.), a deep inlet in the centre region (about -10 dB) and a fast roll off outside the coverage area (slope: 35 dB/34.7 deg.). Studying various kinds of alternative concepts, a shaped rotational symmetric antenna fed by a corrugated feed is raised as a proper solution