Improving the aperture efficiency in impulse radiating antennas using polarization control

Impulse radiating antennas (IRAs) belong to the class of focused aperture antennas. The concept of prompt aperture efficiency has been introduced for time-domain aperture antennas like IRAs, and it has been shown that typical reflector IRAs with the feed arms oriented at angles of 45° with respect to the horizontal have aperture efficiencies in the order of 25%. Several studies have explored mechanisms to increase aperture efficiency by addressing some of these issues, including aperture shape, feed arm position, and aperture trimming. In this presentation, we discuss polarization control as a further method for improving the aperture efficiency.