Dual Band Planar Spiral Feed Backed by a Stepped Ground Plane Cavity for Satellite Boresight Reference Antenna Applications

This paper presents development of a new planar spiral feed for a satellite boresight reference antenna, operating at two widely separated frequency bands (2200-2300 MHz and 8000-8400 MHz). A stepped ground plane cavity with different quarter wavelength distances is proposed to provide unidirectional patterns at these frequency bands. A back lobe suppression of around 12 dB in 2 GHz band and better than 15 dB in 8 GHz band with a measured on-axis axial ratio of less than 3 dB is achieved for the dual band planar spiral feed with stepped ground plane cavity configuration. A boresight reflector antenna employing this feed has measured beamwidths of 7 degrees and 1.8 degrees respectively and gain of 26 dBi and 36 dBi at 2250 MHz and 8200 MHz.

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