Design and Development of an Electronically Controlled Polarization Agile Slotted Waveguide Array Antenna

Abstract

This paper presents a new design for a polarization agile slotted waveguide array antenna that can dynamically switch between four polarization states: Vertical Polarization (VP), Horizontal Polarization (HP), Right-Handed Circular Polarization (RHCP), and Left-Handed Circular Polarization (LHCP) via electronic control of the antenna’s power feed. The multi-layered antenna uses a custom-designed patch array as an actively regulated polarizing grid placed over the slotted waveguides. A 1-by-4 antenna array operating at 2.5 GHz was designed, fabricated, and tested to ensure its effectiveness. Results show realized gains of 13.84 dBi (VP), 11.81 dBi (HP), 11.86 dBi (RHCP), and 11.66 dBi (LHCP), with an axial ratio of 1.1dB and impedance bandwidth of 32 MHz. This architecture provides greater flexibility and performance over traditional designs. It is also suitable for modern radar and remote sensing systems due to its creative design and easy integration with advanced polarimetry algorithms.