Substrate Integrated Waveguide Based Cavity-Backed Circularly-Polarized Antenna for Satellite Communication

Abstract

This article presents the methodology to design a single-fed circularly-polarized antenna with low front-to-back ratio (FBR). A circular-patch (CPatch) antenna has been incorporated within the rectangular-cavity, made of, substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). The size of the CPatch and the SIW cavity has been chosen appropriately, in a manner, that the both resonators dominant mode coincide. This arrangement has been adopted to realize the basic radiating unit with no surface-wave and the significantly lower FBR. The circularly polarization has been excited through shorting the periphery of CPatch radiator to the “one of the two metallic grounds” of this SIW cavity. The patch periphery has been shorted from two distinct points, separated by the quarter wavelength—over center frequency of working band. The antenna has been designed and manufactured over Rogers RT/Duroid 5880 substrate with dielectric constant (εr) of 2.2, loss-tangent (tan δ, at 10 GHz) of 0.0009, and substrate height of 0.508 mm. Southwest® end launcher (SEL) along with SIW-to-GCPW (Grounded Co-Planar Waveguide) transition has been used here to facilitate the measurement of antenna’s electrical and the radiation performance. The designed antenna’s impedance bandwidth and the 3 dB axial-ratio (AR) bandwidth is 9.5% and the 2.3%, respectively. It’s simulated and the measured peak gain, within working frequency band, is higher than 8.5dBic. The proposed antenna’s FBR is antenna is significantly lower than the conventional circularly-polarized antennas. Through comparative study, with work in open literature, it has been demonstrated that the designed antenna, based on proposed method, can a potential candidate for applicable in satellite and in the other spaceborne communication system’s module—at ground and in the space station.