2-D Beam Steering Performance of a Triple Mode Horn Antenna Integrated With Risley Prism and Phase Correcting Surface
Kaushik Debbarma, Nhat Truong, Satish K. Sharma, Jia‐Chi Samuel Chieh
Abstract
This paper presents a passive 2-D beam steering solution comprising of a triple-mode circular waveguide horn antenna operating at Ka-band frequency of 30 GHz, a pair of identical dielectric lenses employing Risley prism and a parabolic phase correcting surface. The circular waveguide horn antenna generates <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TE}}_{11}, {\mathrm {TM}}_{01}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TE}}_{21}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> modes independently. The pair of identical dielectric lenses employing the Risley prism concept are axially rotated individually and/or simultaneously to steer the radiated beam. The parabolic phase correcting structure is used to further improve the performance of the steered patterns. Overall, this antenna structure steers <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TE}}_{11}, {\mathrm {TM}}_{01}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TE}}_{21}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> modes patterns which makes it an attracting solution for tracking and communication applications. The proposed antenna system has been prototyped and experimentally verified in a compact antenna test range (CATR) chamber. The measured conical scan angles for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TE}}_{11}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mode is found to be around <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm 40{^\circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with gain deviation less than 3 dB. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TM}}_{01}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\mathrm {TE}}_{21}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> modes are steered with a scan angle covering <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm 30{^\circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.