Ku-band Antenna Array Based on a Fabry-Perot Cavity

The work is devoted to the design of a low-profile circularly polarized antenna array based on a Fabry-Perot cavity with low manufacturing cost for use in mechanically scanned satellite communication terminals. A 2×8 antenna array with dimensions 185×740×38 mm was developed on the basis of the obtained array element. A power divider based on thin and hollow waveguides was designed to excite the resonators within the array. The developed power divider consists of 5 flat aluminum layers with the topology implemented by laser cutting method. The paper presents calculations of two-layer frequency selective surface (FSS) acting as partially reflective surface of cavity. The topology of FSS was realized by photolithography on Kappa 438 material. The measured VSWR in the frequency band 11.8–12.5 GHz did not exceed 1.5. The total efficiency was about 50% in the frequency band of 5%. The measured axial ratio was at least 2.5 dB in the operating frequency band. The developed antenna was used to successfully receive satellite TV signals from Express AT1 satellite (56°E) on the territory of Krasnoyarsk city, Russia.