Wideband Circularly Polarized Square Slot Array Fed by Slotted Waveguide for Satellite Communication

A wideband circularly polarized (CP) slot array with high radiation efficiency is proposed. The cavity-backed square slots are designed to achieve wideband CP radiation with a unidirectional pattern. The slotted waveguide is adopted to feed the array with high efficiency. The square slot, cavity and feeding slot in the waveguide can be viewed as a radiating element. A CP slot array can be conveniently designed as traditional waveguide slot arrays, once the element admittance characteristic is determined. A 1-by-8 CP array operating at 12.5GHz has been developed. Measured impedance bandwidth of 6.9%, axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth of 8.8% and a gain of 15.4 dBi have been achieved. This array can be conveniently expanded to a larger wideband CP array with a higher gain, which is preferred for the specific satellite communication applications.