Compact and Highly Efficient Single and Dual Polarized Aperture Antennas with Integrated Multiport Overmoded Excitation

This paper presents a new type of radiating horn-like radiating element which exploits a two- or four-port integrated overmoded power division depending on the aperture type and the requirement for single- or dual-polarization. The general concept is illustrated by two design examples which are proposed in this paper at Ku-Tx band (10.7 – 12.75 GHz); a single-polarized two-access rectangular aperture pyramidal horn and a dual-polarized four-access square aperture horn feed antenna. The generic operational principles call for a power divider which feeds two or four suitably flared waveguide sections which are further connected to a bi- or quad-furcated surface discontinuity for the combination of the incoming fields. Finally, a common waveguide region on top completes the total topology. This type of radiating elements exhibits a compact profile, while at the same time achieves high aperture efficiency (over 90%) due to robust materialization of the desired aperture modal content over a bandwidth of 20%.