Sequential 90° Rotation of Dual-Polarized Antenna Elements in Linear Phased Arrays with Improved Cross-Polarization Level for Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Applications

[EN] In this work, a novel rotation approach for the antenna elements of a linear phased array is presented. The proposed method improves by up to 14 dB the cross-polarization level within the main beam by performing a sequential 90° rotation of the identical array elements, and achieving measured cross-polarization suppressions of 40 dB. This configuration is validated by means of simulation and measurements of a manufactured linear array of five dual-polarized cavity-box aperture coupled stacked patch antennas operating in L-Band, and considering both uniform amplitude and phase distribution and beamforming with amplitude tapering. The analysis is further extended by applying and comparing the proposed design with the 180° rotation and non-rotation topologies. This technique is expected to be used for the next generation L-Band Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Sensor of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Lorente-Catalán, D.; Limbach, M.; Gabler, B.; Esteban González, H.; Boria Esbert, VE. (2021). Sequential 90° Rotation of Dual-Polarized Antenna Elements in Linear Phased Arrays with Improved Cross-Polarization Level for Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Applications. Remote Sensing. 13(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13081430