Design of a dual circular polarization microstrip patch array antenna

Design of a microstrip array antenna to achieve dual circular polarization is proposed in this paper. The proposed antenna is a 2×2 array antenna where each patch element is circularly polarized. The feed network has microstrip lines, cross slot lines and air-bridges. The array antenna can excite both right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) and left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) without using any 90° hybrid circuit or PIN diode. “Both-sided MIC Technology” is used to design the feed network as it provides flexibility to place several types of transmission lines on both sides of the dielectric substrate. The design frequency of the proposed array antenna is 10 GHz. The simulated return loss exhibits an impedance bandwidth of greater than 5% and the 3-dB axial ratio bandwidths for both RHCP and LHCP are approximately 1.39%. The structure and the basic operation along with the simulation results of the proposed dual circularly polarized array antenna are demonstrated in this paper.