Millimeter-Wave Wideband Circularly Polarized Planar Complementary Source Antenna With Endfire Radiation

A novel circularly polarized (CP) complementary source antenna with endfire radiation is proposed in Ka-band. With the existence of two antipodal notches etched at the edges of the two broad walls of an open-ended substrate-integrated waveguide, two orthogonal electric field components radiated from the equivalent magnetic current, and the electric currents separately can be excited simultaneously. The magnitude and phase differences between the two filed components can be controlled effectively by properly tuning the dimensions of the notches. The operating mechanism and the design procedure of the antenna are analyzed in detail. Wide -10 dB impedance and 3 dB axial ratio bandwidths of 64% and 51%, a gain varying from 3.1 to 6.4 dBic, and the symmetrical radiation pattern are obtained. In order to further increase the gain and front-to-back ratio (FTBR) of the antenna, a dielectric rod structure is then integrated with the antenna. An overlapped operating bandwidth of 41%, an improved gain up to 12 dBic and the stable radiation pattern with an FTBR close to 20 dB are verified by a fabricated prototype. The antenna presented in this paper provides a new mean to design the wideband endfire CP antenna with a simple configuration, which would be attractive for future millimeterwave wireless systems.