C-band dual-polarization receiver for the Sardinia Radio-Telescope

This paper describes the design and the measurement results of a dual-circular-polarization C-band antenna-feed system developed by the Applied Electromagnetics Group of the IEIIT-CNR. The antenna-feed system was delivered to the National Institute of Astrophysics in May 2007, and will be mounted in the C-band receiver of the Sardinia radio-telescope under construction in San Basilio (CA), Italy. Excellent figures-of-merit were obtained thanks to the conception of novel architectures concerning its two key building blocks, i.e. the polarizer and the ortho-mode transducer.