Research Article A Novel CP Horn Antenna with Switchable...

Research ArticleA Novel CP Horn Antenna with Switchable Polarization bySingle Port Feeding

Yangzhen Huang, Junping Geng, Xianling Liang, Ronghong Jin, and Xudong Bai

Department of Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Junping Geng; [email protected]

Received 13 December 2014; Accepted 6 February 2015

Academic Editor: Giuseppe Mazzarella

Copyright © 2015 Yangzhen Huang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.

A novel CP horn antenna with switchable polarization by single port feeding is presented. The antenna is composed of a coaxial-waveguide converter and a balance-cavity, a horn, a square-to-circular waveguide transition, and a stepped-septumpolarizer, whichsimplify the feeding and can work on the left-hand or right-hand circular polarizations by manual exchanging the mountingposition of the coaxial-waveguide converter and the balance-cavity.The antenna achieves an impedance bandwidth (3.88∼5.12 GHz)of 27.5% and a 3 dB-AR (Axial Ratio) bandwidth of 18.6%, with the 3 dB-AR beamwidth of about 149∘, and the antenna gain is over13.3 dB in the available band.

1. Introduction

Circular polarized (CP) antenna has been considered as thekey component of the high data rate communication sys-tem for antidepolarization [1], easy matching polarization,and suppressing the interference of Faraday rotation effectfrom the water droplet or ionosphere in channel [2]. Inaddition, CP antenna with switchable polarization may bemore attractive in order to increase the efficient utilization ofthe electromagnetic spectrum and the link capacity [3]. Theusual method to obtain switchable polarization is utilizingthe properties of PIN diode in the microstrip antennas [4, 5],but these antennas cannot match the requirements of longerrange wireless communication and horn antenna maybe abetter choice because of its high efficiency and high gain withgreat power capacity. In [6], a horn antenna is presented torealize the broadband polarization splitting, but the dual-portfeeding configuration may increase the system complexityand the processing cost of antenna, which is inconvenientin miniaturized system. Consequently, a novel CP hornantenna with switchable polarization by single port feedingis introduced and carefully examined.

In this paper, we present a novel CP horn antenna withsingle-feeding port and switchable polarization, which isattractive in microwave communication, especially in mil-limeter wave applications compared with other frequency

bands. In this study, constrained by various conditions, suchas test equipment and machining accuracy, the proposedantenna is machined andmeasured in C-band to confirm thedesign idea, which can be easily extrapolated to other bands.The antenna is fed by a coaxial-waveguide converter alongwith a balance-cavity which keeps a wideband impedancematching and achieves the left-hand or right-hand circularpolarizations by altering the connecting method betweenthe polarizer and the single-feeding system (including theconverter and the balance-cavity).Theoptimized antenna canachieve an available impedance bandwidth (3.88∼5.12GHz)of 27.5% and a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 18.6%.The antenna gainis over 13.3 dB in the operation band with the 3 dB-AR beamwidth over 149∘.

2. Antenna Geometry and Design

The proposed CP antenna is schematically represented inFigure 1, which includes a horn, a square-to-circular waveg-uide transition, a stepped-septum polarizer, and a single-feeding system (including a coaxial-waveguide converter anda balance-cavity). The horn is composed of two sections: aconical horn section and a loaded circular waveguide section,which can obtain a compact geometry and high apertureefficiency [7]. The square-to-circular waveguide transition,

Hindawi Publishing CorporationInternational Journal of Antennas and PropagationVolume 2015, Article ID 562521, 9 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/562521

2 International Journal of Antennas and Propagation

1

4

3

2

(a)

1

43

2

Cross section 2Cross section 1

(b)

Figure 1: Geometry of proposed antenna (a). Integrated structure; (b).AHorn,B transitionC polarizer, andD Single feeding.

achieving a smooth transition between two modes of elec-tromagnetic wave, is introduced to connect the horn and thestepped-septum polarizer [8].

The polarizer is a three-port waveguide device which isdivided into two parts through a thin conductive septum,leaving us with two identical input rectangular waveguideports and a single output square waveguide port [9]. Byexciting one input port and connecting impedance matchingon the other input port simultaneously, the circular polariza-tion wave can be produced at the output square waveguide,which is a combination of TE

10and TE

01modes [10]. In

this study, one port is replaced by the balance-cavity, whichplays the role of energy reflector and phase compensator;the other port is excited by the coaxial-waveguide converter.The electromagnetic wave excitation coupled to the otherpart of the polarizer waveguide through the complicated cou-pling mechanism in the septum region and reflected by thebalance-cavity [11]. A proper phase relationship between thereflected electromagnetic wave and the initial excitation canbe obtained via the cavity structure adjustment. Combineddesign of the cavity and the stepped-septum is carried outto achieve a good performance in terms of axial ratio andimpedance matching.

The realization of the polarization switching is basedon the feature that the stepped-septum polarizer can excitehigh-purity LHCP or RHCP [12]. When one input port isexcited, the LHCP is produced; when the other input portis excited, the RHCP is produced. Consequently, simplemechanical rotation of the single-feeding system can realize

the switchable polarization. The properties of the two typesof polarization modes are similar, which is determined bythe symmetry prosperities of the structure. The study aimsto simplify antenna construction and that this is indeed thecase has been confirmed experimentally and the results arepresented in the following section.

2.1. The Design Process of Balance-Cavity. As shown inFigure 1(a), the simulation and optimization is firstly basedon the LHCP mounting-method, and the balance-cavityand the coaxial-waveguide converter are connected with thetwo input ports of polarizer, respectively. As illustrated inFigure 1(b), cross section 1 of input rectangularwaveguide hasthe side length 40.386mm × 20.193mm and the cutoff fre-quency of fundamentalmode (TE

10) and higher-ordermodes

(TE01/TE20/TE11/TM11) are 3.71, 7.43, 7.43, 8.31, and 8.31 GHz,

respectively, which can realize the single-mode transmission(TE10) of electromagnetic wave in coaxial-waveguide con-

verter and thus generate TE10excitation signal. Cross section

2 of output square waveguide is shown in Figure 1(b), whichhas the side length 42.386mm × 40.386mm and the cutofffrequency of fundamental mode (TE

10) and higher-order

modes (TE01/TE11/TM11/TE20) are 3.54, 3.71, 5.13, 5.13, and

7.08GHz, respectively, which can achieve the dual-modestransmission (TE

10/TE01) of electromagnetic wave and thus

generate the circularly polarized output.On this basis, the design of balance-cavity is carried

out and it is expected that best performance in terms ofaxial ratio and impedance matching will result by choosing

International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 3

1 2

3 4

(a)

−50 −40 −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30 40 50

𝜃 (deg.)

5

4

3

2

1

0

AR-4.65

GH

z

(A) Rectangle(B) Triangle (D) Semicircle

(C) Trapezium

(b)

Figure 2: (a) Four shapes:A rectangle,B triangle,C trapezium, andD semicircle; (b) AR at 4.65GHz.

1

43

2

h6

(a)

0

1

2

3

4

5

AR

(dB)

−80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80

𝜃 (deg.)

h6 = 0mmh6 = 8mm

h6 = 16mmh6 = 24mm

(b)

Figure 3: The effects of ℎ6

on antenna: (a) four lengths, (b) AR at 4.65GHz.

appropriate cavity configuration. As shown in Figure 2, theshape of the inner reflective surface of the balance-cavity isan important indicator which affects the 3 dB-AR (axial ratio)bandwidth and the circularly polarized wave beamwidth.To better understand the effects, several types of shape(rectangle, triangle, trapezium, and semicircle) are modelledand simulated in HFSS, and antenna performance for thesecases is illustrated in Figure 2(b) and summed up in Table 1.According to the simulation results, the semicircle has thebest performance in terms of 3 dB-AR (axial ratio) bandwidthand the circularly polarized wave beamwidth. As shownin Figure 3, the effects of ℎ

6(the length of balance-cavity)

are simulated and optimized in HFSS. It is observed thatthe parameter ℎ

6has a relatively significant influence on

Table 1: Four shapes of inner reflective surface in Figure 2.

Type Rectangle Triangle Trapezium Semicircle3 dB-AR bandwidth 10.3% 11.8% 14% 15.8%3 dB-AR beamwidth4.65GHz 82∘ 83∘ 86∘ 96∘

the AR performance-curve along the theta coordinate axis.The length ℎ

6is determined to be 24mm, 16mm, 8mm,

and 0mm, respectively, to achieve best performance and thesimulated 3 dB-AR beamwidth at 4.65GHz is 120∘ when ℎ

6=

16mm.


180∘ rotation

(a) (b)

Figure 4: (a) Two connection methods of polarizations; (b) single-feeding system.

Based on the properties outlined previously and param-eter scanning, we have arrived at a successful design andhave subsequently generalized results; the final dimensionsof balance-cavity are tabulated in Table 3.

2.2. The Similarity of Switchable Polarization. Based on thesymmetry properties of structure outlined previously andthe equivalence properties of electrical performance, wehave arrived at successful results. As Figure 4 illustrated, thecoaxial-waveguide converter and the balance-cavity connectwith the two input ports of the polarizer in two methods fordifferent polarization modes. The switching can be achievedby the 180∘ mechanical rotation of the single-feed system,consisting of a converter and a balance-cavity.

As shown in Figure 5, a good similarity in terms ofreturn-loss, gain, and AR between two kinds of polarizationmodes is presented, and the simulated cross polarizationdiscrimination of LHCP and RHCP is more than 23 dB.

2.3. The Entire Design Process. The entire design process ismainly divided into three sections: the horn, the polarizer,and the single-feed system. After the successful design andsimulation of individual part, integrated simulation is carriedout to ensure excellent performance for the final design.Since there is a small degree of interaction between the parts,some adjustments to the dimensions are required during thedesign. As discussed above, these parameters are a matter ofconcern while carrying out the integrated simulation.The listof key parameters is as follows: (1) septum width, (2) septumlength, (3) balance-cavity length ℎ

6, (4) balance-cavity, and

(5) feed probe. Through defining the objective function andsetting key parameters, successful optimization results areachieved within a reasonable computation time. The finaldimensions of the antenna after optimization are illustratedin Figure 6 and summarized in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2: Dimensions of the conductive spectrum in Figure 6.

Parameters 𝑙

1

𝑙

2

𝑙

3

𝑙

4

𝑙

5

Values/mm 8 8 8 8 9Parameters 𝑤

1

𝑤

2

𝑤

3

𝑤

4

𝑤

5

Values/mm 40.386 28 20 13 4

Table 3: Dimensions of the proposed antenna in Figure 6.

Parameters ℎ

1

ℎ

2

ℎ

3

ℎ

4

ℎ

5

ℎ

6

Values/mm 52 51 15 30 25 16Parameters ℎ

7

ℎ

8

ℎ

9

𝑟

1

𝑟

2

𝑟

3

Values/mm 3 1 7.5 20 45 64Parameters 𝑟

4

𝑟

5

𝑟

6

𝑎 𝑏 𝑡

Values/mm 10.1 1.57 2.14 40.386 20.193 2

3. Results and Discussions

The design and simulation of the proposed circularly polar-ized antenna is accomplished by the commercial microwavesimulation software HFSS based on the finite elementmethod. Due to the symmetry of the antenna structure, theproperty of two polarization modes is almost perfectly inalignment.

The 𝑆-parameters of the proposed antenna are measuredby an Agilent E8363B vector network analyser. Figure 8shows the simulated and measured 𝑆-parameters and thediscrepancy in resonance frequency may be attributed to theinstallation procedures and other fabrication accuracies. Dueto the symmetry properties of structure outlined previously,good similarity of 𝑆

11performance between LHCP and

RHCP is obtained. It is observed that themeasured |𝑆11| value

is below −10 dB at 3.88GHz∼5.12GHz, and the impedancebandwidth is 27.5%.


RHCPLHCP

4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2

Frequency (GHz)

0

−5

−15

−10

−20

−25

S11

(dB)

(a)

RHCPLHCP

−180 −120 −60 0 60 120 180

𝜃 (deg.)

5

4

2

3

1

0

AR4.65

GH

z (dB

)

(b)

−180 −120 −60 0 60 120 180

𝜃 (deg.)

20

0

−10

10

−20

−30

−40

RHCPLHCP

Gai

n4.65

GH

z (dB

)

(c)

CopolarizationCross polarization

−180 −120 −60 0 60 120 180

𝜃 (deg.)

Gai

n (d

B)20

10

0

−10

−20

−30

−40

(d)

Figure 5: Similarity between LHCP and RHCP.

Table 4: The measured result of antenna.

Frequency(GHz)

4.3 4.65 5LHCP RHCP LHCP RHCP LHCP RHCP

3 dB-ARbeamwidth 72∘ 76∘ 138∘ 149∘ 116∘ 105∘

Gain (dB) 13.43 13.34 13.79 14.09 14.49 14.55

As shown in Figure 7, the radiation patterns of the pro-posed antenna are measured in the far-field anechoic cham-ber. The measured the simulated LHCP/RHCP radiationpatterns and AR-performance at 4.3, 4.65, and 5GHz are,respectively, plotted in Figures 9 and 10. Good agree-ment between measured and simulated radiation patterns

is achieved. The modular-machining method is used toachieve the final assembly of the proposed antenna due tothe complexity of structure, which will bring about someinconsistency between the machined antenna and the HFSSmodel, thus resulting in some slight discrepancies betweenthe measured and simulated AR results.The antenna exhibitsgood directional radiation patterns across the entire bandand the gains at operation frequencies are about 13.3 dB. Itis observed that the LHCP-AR is below 3 dB when 𝜃 variesfrom −39∘ to 37∘ at 4.3 GHz, from −71∘ to 78∘ at 4.65GHz,and from −53∘ to 52∘ at 5GHz; the RHCP-AR is below 3 dBwhen 𝜃 varies from −34∘ to 38∘ at 4.3 GHz, from −64∘ to 74∘at 4.65GHz, and from −62∘ to 54∘ at 5GHz. According to thetest data, the 3 dB-AR (axial ratio) bandwidth is 18.6%, from4.23GHz to 5.1 GHz.The gain and 3 dB-AR beamwidth of theproposed antenna are tabulated in Table 4.


h6

h1 h2h3 h4 h5

t r1 r2 r3

r4

(a)

w1

w2

w3

w4

w5

l1

l2

l3

l4

l5

(b)

r5

r6

h8

h7

h9

a

b Feed probe

(c)

Figure 6: Dimensions of antenna. (a) Right view; (b) conductive septum; (c) coaxial-waveguide converter.

Figure 7: Test scenario in far-field anechoic chamber.

4. Conclusions

A novel CP horn antenna with switchable polarization bysingle port feeding is presented, which simplifies the feedstructure of antenna and achieves a switch between the left-hand and right-hand circular polarizations. The polarization

Measured-LHCP

SimulatedMeasured-RHCP

Frequency (GHz)3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2

0

−10

−20

−30

−40

−50

S11

(dB)

Figure 8: Measured and simulated 𝑆-parameters.


−60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60

𝜃 (deg.)𝜃 (deg.)

AR

(dB)

5

4

3

2

1

0

0

330 30

300 60

270 90

120240

210

180

150

20

20

10

10

0

0

−10

−20

−10

Gai

n (d

B)

(a)

−80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80


5

4

3

2

1

0

AR

(dB)

0

330 30

300 60

270 90

120240

210

180

150

20

20

10

10

0

0

−10

−20

−10

Gai

n (d

B)

(b)

−80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80


MeasuredSimulated

5

4

3

2

1

0

AR

(dB)

20

20

10

10

0

0

−10

−20

−10

Gai

n (d

B)

0

330 30

300 60

270 90

120240

210

180

150

MeasuredSimulated

(c)

Figure 9: Measured and simulated LHCP radiation patterns and AR. (a) 4.3 GHz. (b) 4.65GHz. (c) 5GHz.


5

4

3

2

1

0

AR

(dB)

−80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80


0

330 30

300 60

270 90

240

210

180

150

120

20

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10

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−10

−20

−10

Gai

n (d

B)

(a)

−80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80

𝜃 (deg.)

5

4

3

2

1

0

AR

(dB)

𝜃 (deg.)

0

330 30

300 60

270 90

240

210

180

150

120

20

20

10

10

0

0

−10

−20

−10

Gai

n (d

B)

(b)

5

4

3

2

1

0

AR

(dB)

𝜃 (deg.)

−80 −60 −40 −20 0 20 40 60 80

𝜃 (deg.)

MeasuredSimulated

0

330 30

300 60

270 90

240

210

180

150

120

20

20

10

10

0

0

−10

−20

−10

Gai

n (d

B)

MeasuredSimulated

(c)

Figure 10: Measured and simulated RHCP radiation patterns and AR. (a) 4.3 GHz. (b) 4.65GHz. (c) 5GHz.


switch between the left-hand and right-hand circular polar-izations can be obtained through changing the connectingposition of the coaxial-waveguide converter and the balance-cavity. After the measurement, the simulated and measuredresults show the good consistency.Therefore, it is a promisingantenna in communication.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Science and Tech-nology of Major Project (2011ZX03001-007-03), the NationalNatural Science Foundation (61201058), the Research andInnovation Project of Shanghai Education Commission(12Z112030001), and the Scientific Research Foundation forReturned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Min-istry, and the Project of “SMC Excellent Young Faculty.”

References

[1] A. Othman, M. F. Ain, A. A. Sulaiman, and M. A. Othman,“A ka-band horn antenna excited with parasitic dielectricresonator antenna,” in Proceedings of the 17th InternationalConference on Telecommunications (ICT ’10), pp. 446–448,IEEE, April 2010.

[2] X. L. Bao andM. J. Ammann, “Monofilar spiral slot antenna fordual-frequency dual-sense circular polarization,” IEEETransac-tions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 3061–3065,2011.

[3] J. A. Ruiz-Cruz, M.M. Fahmi, S. A. Fouladi, and R. R.Mansour,“Waveguide antenna feeders with integrated reconfigurabledual circular polarization,” IEEE Transactions on MicrowaveTheory and Techniques, vol. 59, no. 12, pp. 3365–3374, 2011.

[4] T. U. Jang, B. Y. Kim, Y. J. Sung, and Y. S. Kim, “Square patchantenna with switchable polarization using spur-line and PINdiode,” in Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference(APMC ’05), vol. 4, IEEE, December 2005.

[5] S.-H. Hsu and K. Chang, “A novel reconfigurable microstripantenna with switchable circular polarization,” IEEE Antennasand Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 6, pp. 160–162, 2007.

[6] L. Li, Z. Shao, Y. Cheng, Q. Wang, and P. Li, “Design of a novelbroadband compact dual polarized horn,” in Proceedings ofthe International Conference on Computational Problem-Solving(ICCP ’13), pp. 215–217, IEEE, October 2013.

[7] H. Diez, “High efficiency and compact X band feed for teleme-try applications,” in Proceedings of the 15th International Sym-posium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics(ANTEM ’12), pp. 389–391, June 2012.

[8] J. Bornemann and V. A. Labay, “Ridge waveguide polarizerwith finite and stepped-thickness septum,” IEEE Transactionson Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 43, no. 8, pp. 1782–1787, 1995.

[9] S. A. Hasan, “Design&measurement techniques for innovative,high performance, circularly polarized, ultra wideband corru-gated horn antenna with septum polarizer for space applica-tions,” in Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference

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[10] J. Esteban and J. M. Rebollar, “Field theory CAD of septumOMT-polarizers,” inProceedings of the IEEEAntennas and Prop-agation Society International Symposium Held in Conjuctionwith: URSI Radio Science Meeting and Nuclear EMP Meeting(AP-S ’92), vol. 4, pp. 2146–2149, Chicago, Ill, USA, June 1992.

[11] M. J. Franco, “A high-performance dual-mode feed horn forparabolic reflectors with a stepped-septum polarizer in a circu-lar waveguide [Antenna designer’s notebook],” IEEE Antennasand Propagation Magazine, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 142–146, 2011.

[12] M. Chen and G. Tsandoulas, “A wide-band square-waveguidearray polarizer,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propaga-tion, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 389–391, 1973.

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