Low-Cost X/Ku/Ka-Band Dual-Polarized Array With Shared Aperture

This paper presents a novel tri-band (X/Ku/Ka-band) planar antenna array with dual polarizations and shared aperture. Compared with traditional dual-polarized arrays, the proposed array has advantages of low cost, low profile, and high integration. Three types of antennas resonating at different frequencies, including the perforated patch, stacked patch, and slim crosspatch, are innovatively interleaved in the same aperture. The crosspatch fed by proximity coupling is presented as Ku-band element for its advantages of compact size, high isolation, and pure polarization. The techniques such as series feed and reverse feed are utilized to implement the six feed networks in a compact size with reduced cross polarizations. Measured results agree well with the simulations, showing three operation bands at X-, Ku-, and Ka-bands with the bandwidths of 3.6%, 6.7%, and 5.3%, respectively. The antenna also exhibits excellent radiation performance with the cross-polarization discrimination over 25 dB at the three bands. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first shared-aperture X/Ku/Ka-band dual-polarized antenna array reported, which is useful for potential synthetic aperture radar applications.