Circularly Polarized Rounded-Off Triangular Microstrip Line Array Antenna

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch a geostationary satellite called Engineering Test Satellite VIII (ETS-VIII) in FY 2006. In this paper, a microstrip line array antenna, which has a very simple structure, is introduced to radiate a circularly polarized wave aiming at ETS-VIII applications. This antenna consists of a triangular conducting line with its vertexes rounded off, located above a ground plane, with a gap on one of its side to produce a circular polarization. The proposed antenna is analyzed by numerical simulations for a single element as well as for a three elements array configuration and the possibility of beam-switching in the azimuth space is experimentally confirmed in the latter case. It is found that by properly feeding the elements constituting the array antenna, for an elevation angle El = 48◦ in Tokyo area, three beams are created in the conical-cut direction with a minimum gain more than 6.6 dBic and an axial ratio less than 3 dB. key words: microstrip line antenna, circular polarization, triangular shape, rounded vertex, array configuration, beam-switching, mobile satellite communications