Comparison of Additively Manufactured Dual-Polarized Probe Antennas at Ku-Band

Abstract

This paper presents a comparison between two additively manufactured dual-polarized open-ended waveguide probe antennas. The probe antenna design covers the up-link and down-link frequencies of satellite communications at Ku-band (10.7 - 14.5 GHz), and it could be used for fast ground-station antenna measurements. The used fabrication processes are the fused filament fabrication (FFF) followed by the metallization with conductive paint and the direct metal printing using binder-jet process. The measured performance of the manufactured prototypes agrees well with the simulated performance in the design frequency range. The slight dimensional deviations from the design values increase the low-frequency coupling and reflection coefficients compared to the simulations. To decrease the coupling between polarizations, a horn-type waveguide opening is introduced.