Low-profile dipole array fed transmitarray

The high profile of the space-fed antennas is the main restriction for practical applications. Traditional design method to pursue high compactness of this kind of antenna is to decrease the focus-to-diameter ratio (F/D), but suffers from performance degradation. To address this issue, a small dipole array is chosen as the feed in our design. By employing conjugate field matching (CFM) technology, the small feed array can effectively excite the transmitarray with a significant reduction of the profile. Compared to an identical transmitarray excited by a traditional horn, although 0.33 dB gain drop is suffered, the profile of the whole antenna is reduced by almost two thirds. Finally, the simulated results of the presented model confirm the feasibility of designing a low-profile dipole array feed transmitarray.