A Combined Bandpass Filter and Polarization Transformer for Horn Antennas

Recently, our group has proposed a self-filtering linearly polarized horn antenna that can be used to reduce the noise captured by regular horn feeds. However, the approach used in that design is inherently limited to linear polarization, while possible interesting applications are likely in satellite receiving systems, which are typically based on circularly polarized signals. In this letter, we propose a new approach to obtain a filtering horn antenna working in circular polarization. The proposed solution is based on the design of a linear-to-circular polarization transformer that consists of a complementary electrically small resonator etched on a metallic screen. We first show that this component is able to transform the linear polarization of a regular rectangular waveguide working on the fundamental mode into a circular one. Then, integrating this polarization transformer in a conical horn, we show how it is possible to obtain a circularly polarized filtering horn antenna. The numerical simulations and the measurements performed on a prototype prove that the proposed structure can be effectively used to design a bandpass filtering horn antenna for circularly polarized signals.