Circularly Polarized Rounded-Off Triangular Microstrip Line Array Antenna

David DELAUNE
Josaphat Tetuko SRI SUMANTYO
Masaharu TAKAHASHI
Koichi ITO

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E89-B    No.4    pp.1372-1381
Publication Date: 2006/04/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e89-b.4.1372
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Antennas and Propagation
Keyword: 
microstrip line antenna,  circular polarization,  triangular shape,  rounded vertex,  array configuration,  beam-switching,  mobile satellite communications,  

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Summary: 
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch a geostationary satellite called Engineering Test Satellite VIII (ETS-VIII) in FY 2006. In this paper, a microstrip line array antenna, which has a very simple structure, is introduced to radiate a circularly polarized wave aiming at ETS-VIII applications. This antenna consists of a triangular conducting line with its vertexes rounded off, located above a ground plane, with a gap on one of its side to produce a circular polarization. The proposed antenna is analyzed by numerical simulations for a single element as well as for a three elements array configuration and the possibility of beam-switching in the azimuth space is experimentally confirmed in the latter case. It is found that by properly feeding the elements constituting the array antenna, for an elevation angle El = 48in Tokyo area, three beams are created in the conical-cut direction with a minimum gain more than 6.6 dBic and an axial ratio less than 3 dB.