A Four-Component Polarization Resolver (Correspondence)

Numerous ways are known for resolving a polarized microwave signal into pairs of orthogonally polarized components. Although pairs of orthogonal components contain redundant information, in many experimental applications it is desirable to have both linearly polarized and circularly polarized components available for comparison purposes. These four polarization components are derived simultaneously in the simple resolver-mixer assembly of Fig. 1. The X-band device shown represents an extension of principles applied earlier to an instantaneous polarimeter.