Dual-circular polarized antenna system
View Patent ↗In an example embodiment, an azimuth combiner comprises: a septum layer comprising a plurality of septum dividers; first and second housing layers attached to first and second sides of the septum layer; a linear array of ports on a first end of the combiner; wherein the first and second housing layers each comprise waveguide H-plane T-junctions; wherein the waveguide T-junctions can be configured to perform power dividing/combining; and wherein the septum layer evenly bisects each port of the linear array of ports. A stack of such azimuth combiners can form a two dimensional planar array of ports to which can be added a horn aperture layer, and a grid layer, to form a dual-polarized, dual-BFN, dual-band antenna array.
1. An apparatus comprising:
a linear array of dual-polarized ports;
a septum layer dividing the linear array of dual-polarized ports into first divided ports and second divided ports, the first divided ports associated with a first polarization and the second divided ports associated with a second polarization;
a first network of combiner/dividers on a first side of the septum layer and coupled to the first divided ports; and
a second network of combiner/dividers on a second side of the septum layer and coupled to the second divided ports.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first network of combiner/dividers is coupled between the first divided ports and a first common port associated with the first polarization; and
the second network of combiner/dividers is coupled between the second divided ports and a second common port associated with the second polarization.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein:
a first signal path through the first network of combiner/dividers extends in a first direction and further extends in a second direction opposite the first direction; and
a second signal path through the second network of combiner/dividers extends in the first direction and further extends in the second direction.
4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein:
the first network of combiner/dividers comprises a first combiner/divider layer and a second combiner/divider layer, wherein the first signal path extends in the first direction through the first combiner/divider layer and extends in the second direction through the second combiner/divider layer; and
the second network of combiner/dividers comprises a third combiner/divider layer and a fourth combiner/divider layer, wherein the second signal path extends in the first direction through the third combiner/divider layer and extends in the second direction through the second combiner/divider layer.
5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein:
portions of the first combiner/divider layer and the second combiner/divider layer form surfaces of at least one combiner/divider of the first network of combiner/dividers; and
portions of the third combiner/divider layer and the fourth combiner/divider layer form surfaces of at least one combiner/divider of the second network of combiner/dividers.
6. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the linear array of dual-polarized ports are on a first side of the apparatus, and the first common port and the second common port are on a second side of the apparatus and opposite the first side.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the septum layer comprises a plurality of septum polarizers.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first network of combiner/dividers are mirror images of the second network of combiner/dividers.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein portions of the septum layer form surfaces of the first and second network of combiner/dividers.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an array of dual-polarized antenna elements to communicate signals with the linear array of dual-polarized ports.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the array of dual-polarized antenna elements comprises an aperture horn plate comprising an array of horn elements coupled to the linear array of dual-polarized ports.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the array of dual-polarized antenna elements further comprises an aperture grid plate coupled to the aperture horn plate, wherein the aperture grid plate subdivides each horn element of the array of horn elements into a plurality of apertures.
13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the array of dual-polarized antenna elements comprises a plurality of 2 by 2 antenna elements.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein a first 2 by 2 group of the plurality of 2 by 2 groups is offset from a second 2 by 2 antenna group of the plurality of 2 by 2 antenna groups along a dimension of the array of dual-polarized antenna elements.
15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first polarization corresponds to a first propagating signal polarization of the array of dual-polarized antenna elements, and the second polarization corresponds to a second propagating signal polarization of the array of dual-polarized antenna elements.
16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first polarization is a first circular polarization, and the second polarization is a second circular polarization.
17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first divided ports are mirror images of the second divided ports.
18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the linear array of dual-polarized ports is a first linear array of dual-polarized ports, and further comprising a second linear array of dual-polarized ports parallel to the first linear array of dual-polarized ports.
19. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising:
a second septum layer dividing the second linear array of dual-polarized ports into third divided ports and fourth divided ports, the third divided ports associated with the first polarization and the fourth divided ports associated with the second polarization;
a third network of combiner/dividers on a first side of the second septum layer and coupled to the third divided ports; and
a fourth network of combiner/dividers on a second side of the second septum layer and coupled to the fourth divided ports.