A new multimode rectangular horn antenna generating a circularly polarized elliptical beam

A multimode circularly polarized rectangular horn antenna generating an elliptical shaped beam is described. This antenna operates in two orthogonal mode sets, namely the TE 10 + TE/TM 12 and TE 01 + TE/TM 21 modes. By virtue of the higher order TE/TM modes, the aperture E -field distribution can be tapered such that the effective E -plane far-field beam width is approximately equal to the H -plane beam width of the other orthogonal set of modes, resulting in low off-axis polarization axial ratio. Because of the tapered aperture distribution, the radiation patterns also have low sidelobes. The elliptical cross section beam is a direct result of the rectangular shaped aperture. This antenna, used in conjunction with a spacecraft to illuminate an elliptical zone on the earth surface, offers high edge-of-coverage gain, low sidelobes, low edge-of-coverage (EOC) axial ratio, less RF sensitivity to the space environment, and low cost. The performance of this antenna has been evaluated experimentally.