Four-Node Antenna Feeding Network for Interfacing With Differential Front-End Electronics

A novel concept of a differential feeding network for four-node antenna/antenna arrays is proposed. The network is constructed out of a four-strip coupled-line directional coupler operating in a mixed differential-nodal mode enabling direct interfacing of differential front-ends with single-ended antennas. It is shown, that such a configuration provides at the outputs of the proposed feeding network four signals, which are equal in amplitude and with phase progression of 90°. Thus, such a network can be utilized for generating either dual-circular polarization from a 2× 2 antenna array or can constitute simultaneously two out-of-phase power dividers and a directional coupler resulting in a two-beam antenna array in one cut-plane and two-element array in the other one. The dual-circular excitation is of particular interest for modern-day transceivers as it enables polarization-division-duplex communication. The presented concept is confirmed by measurements of two different antenna arrays operating at 2.5 GHz frequency range featuring dual-circular and dual-beam properties, respectively.