Analysis and Design of a Helical Leaky-Wave Antenna for Satellite Communications

Abstract

A leaky-wave (LW) feeder for non-parabolic reflectors is presented in this paper. It is based on a coaxial line with a helical periodic slot along it to achieve circular polarization and optimum reflector illumination. Full-wave simulation results show the high flexibility to control the radiation from the LW feeder by changing the slot width and periodicity. The design process, based on an in-house CAD tool to efficiently obtain the dimensions of the LW feeder given the desired radiation performance, is also presented. The obtained scanning range of the LW feeder from −90° to 10°, by changing the slot periodicity in the Ku-band at 11.85 GHz, shows the capability to adapt to different reflectors' shape. Efficiencies up to 90% are reported for the LW feeder, making this proposal very suitable for space applications.