Design and realization of a distributed vector sensor for polarization diversity applications

Polarization is one type of waveform diversity that may be exploited to improve both radar and communication systems performance. Analytical results show that in order to obtain the best performance improvements, based upon the use of polarization diversity, knowledge of the full electric and magnetic field components is required. Vector sensor antennas are able to measure these components and thus they enable the exploitation of polarization diversity. This article describes a distributed approach to design a 6D vector antenna in a distributed fashion using both electric dipole and magnetic loops as constitutive elements.