An active,ultra‐wideband dual‐polarizedtightly coupled dipole subarray for satellite communication

Abstract

How to integrate the tightly coupled dipole array (TCDA) with tile‐based power combination network (PCN) has never been discussed in literatures. However, it is a critical issue should be resolved for TCDA's compact design. This article investigates a crucial front‐end component—8 × 8 dual‐polarized tightly coupled dipole subarray (TCDSA)—for ultra‐wideband satellite communication (SATCOM). A tile‐based network architecture is proposed to realize a low‐volume active PCN for the TCDSA. Then, a vertical interconnection module is proposed to totally eliminate coaxial cables between antenna elements and the PCN. A prototype of the TCDSA is developed. The PCN is elaborately integrated with the antenna elements in a compact space within a total thickness of 2.0 cm. The overall height of the prototype is 206.6 mm (2.07λH), where λH is the wavelength at the high‐end operating frequency. The fabricated dual‐polarized prototype demonstrates a decade bandwidth of 0.3–3.0 GHz with low cross‐polarization levels (<−30.0 dB). Because of the compact structure and excellent performance, the developed TCDSA will find applications in future receiving systems for SATCOM.