Enhancement in Dual Polarization Phased Array Antenna Performance and Calibration Techniques for Weather Radar Applications

Abstract

Phased array antennas are being increasingly used in weather radars. However, these antennas have the inherent property that the horizontal and vertical waves are not orthogonal in all azimuth and elevation angles range. Thus, designing phased array antennas with very low cross-polarization is of significant interest to radar scientists and engineers. This work aims at implementing a dual linearly polarized aperture-coupled antenna design and layout so as to reduce this undesired cross-polarization while maintaining the required beamwidth, radiation pattern and scan range range. Here, an antenna element and the corresponding subarray of the antenna elements are implemented, which result in significantly low cross-polarization. This sub-array will be used for full array design.