Dual-Frequency Linear-to-Circular Polarization Converter for Ka-Band Applications

Abstract

A dual-band linear-to-circular planar polarization converter based on a multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) is proposed and demonstrated. Each cell of the periodic surface is formed by six substrate layers separated by five foam spacers. The three top layers are identical and contain an ‘I’-type strip, while the three layers on the bottom side are realized with three identical Jerusalem crosses (JC). A linearly polarized (LP) wave tilted 45° relative to the x- and y-axis of the converter is used to illuminate the polarizer. In this configuration, right-handed circularly polarized (RHCP) waves are generated at the Ka-band while left-handed circularly polarized (LHCP) waves are generated at the K-band. An equivalent circuit model based on transmission lines is proposed and used to design the polarizer together with full-wave simulations. The simulated/measured axial ratio (AR) remains below 3 dB in the bands 19.4–21.8 GHz (12.5%) and 27.9–30.5 GHz (8.7%) with an insertion loss better than 0.5 dB.