Low Profile Wideband Antenna Array With Hybrid Microstrip and Waveguide Feed Network for Ku Band Satellite Reception Systems

Wideband, planar and low profile antenna array is proposed and designed for Ku band direct broadcast from satellite reception for mobile systems. Contrary to earlier designs, the array antenna covers entire downlink Ku-band frequencies (10.8-12.75 GHz) for simultaneous reception from multiple transponders. The array antenna exhibits 16.5% bandwidth and has 30 dBi average gain for both vertical and horizontal polarizations. To achieve high efficiency, hybrid waveguide microstrip feed network is proposed. H-plane waveguide T-junctions with reduced waveguide height and disk loaded coaxial probe for microstrip to waveguide transition are designed. Loss in the array is formulated as an optimization problem and it is minimized for subarray and array configuration. Overall height of the planar antenna with waveguide feed network is under 25 mm. The antenna is built and tested for reception quality. Carrier-to-noise ratio of 9.5 dB was observed for the target transponder (42
^°
E) at 11.9 GHz using IF loop-out of the receiver.