Low-Profile Compact Dual-Band Unit Cell for Polarizing Surfaces Operating in Orthogonal Polarizations

This communication introduces a novel periodic reflector which provides linear to circular polarization (CP) conversion in two frequency bands. Significantly, the reflector converts a slant 45° linearly polarized wave into two orthogonal CPs over two separate frequency bands while further the unit cell dimensions are maintained below the critical grating lobe limit of half wavelength. Unlike previous designs providing this performance, which are based on linear dipole elements, miniaturization is here achieved by exploiting resonances in both TE and TM polarized waves. The operating principle of the polarizer is discussed and a parametric study is presented to derive design guidelines. A prototype working in the satellite Ku-band has been designed and tested to validate the proposed design. The proposed polarizer can find applications in multiple-beam satellite antenna systems in order to reduce the number of reflector apertures in a single-feed-per-beam configuration.