Ultra-wideband dual polarized cavity backed antenna

UWB systems offer many advantages over conventional systems. For example, they allow very high resolution in radar applications which make them excellent candidates in see through wall and ground penetrating radars. They are also used in high data rate communications such as wireless USB. UWB antennas are key elements in these systems. They are generally required to be light weight, compact and have good radiation characteristics. Dual polarized UWB antennas offer additional information which can be used in clutter reduction and target identification in radar systems. The additional polarization can also be used as a diversity measure to improve the received SNR and/or increase the data rate in communication applications. Many dual polarized antennas have been presented in the literature. These include dual polarized patch and slot antennas. However, due to their inherent resonant nature, these antennas cannot provide significantly more than about 20% of bandwidth which limits their use in radar and high data rate communications. Other designs include dual polarized horn and ridged horn antennas. These antennas provide much wider bandwidths, however they are bulky antennas and relatively hard and costly to fabricate.