Aperture-coupled patch antennas with wide-bandwidth and dual-polarization capabilities

The authors discuss the design of a wideband, dual-proportion, C-band patch radiator with a 20% bandwidth for input voltage-standing-wave ratio <2. The aperture-coupled patch antenna, is selected as the starting point of the design. The authors focus on two of the advantages of aperture-coupled patch antennas: the aperture-coupling feed scheme eliminates the soldering process required to secure a pin connecting the feed circuit to the patch, as is necessary in fabricating the conventional probe-fed patch antenna; this can greatly reduce the complexity in constructing large patch arrays consisting of hundreds or thousands of elements; and the ground plane sandwiched between the feed circuitry and the radiating patch can prevent the radiation from the feed network from interfering with the patch radiation pattern. A description is given of the approaches used to achieve the bandwidth and the polarization requirements.<>