Circularly polarized arrays of cavity backed slot antennas for X-band satellite communications

Abstract

Circularly-polarized arrays of cavity backed slot (CBS) antennas are proposed for X-band satellite-earth communications. Two configurations of such circularly polarized arrays are investigated: cross-shaped and square-shaped arrays. Both configurations can produce right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) as well as lefthand circular polarization (LHCP) by proper setting of excitation phase for each element in the array. The finite-difference timedomain (FDTD) method is used to analyze the characteristics of the proposed arrays including the input impedance, S-parameters, radiation pattern, gain and axial ratio. The results show that the proposed array configurations seem very promising and useful for geostationary satellite applications.