3D-printed Ka-band waveguide array antenna for mobile SATCOM applications

Purely passive, mechanically steered waveguide-fed horn arrays are good candidates to satisfy the current need for low-to-medium-profile antennas for mobile user terminals for SATCOM applications. In this work, a unique waveguide feed architecture is proposed, which enables the realization of grating lobe-free, wideband, low-profile waveguide-fed horn arrays operating with dual circular polarization. The realization of such structures using 3D printing is investigated, showing the promise of such techniques in terms of design flexibility. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed waveguide array architecture combined with 3D printing, an 8-by-8 antenna array operating in the 20 GHz SATCOM Ka band has been developed and is presented. This antenna exhibits an aperture efficiency of about 80% over a relative bandwidth larger than 10%.