Investigation on Novel Quarter-Arc Shaped Clusters of Shorting Pins for Improvement in Cross-Polarization Discrimination of Diamond-Shaped Microstrip Patch Antenna

Abstract

In this paper, novel quarter-arc shaped clusters of shorting pins (QACSP) have been explored to establish their candidature in enhancing the cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) of diamond-shaped microstrip patch antenna (DMSA). The QACSP structures are placed symmetrically along the centerline of the DMSA near the non-radiating vertices. The proposed QACSP is found to be effective in increasing the XPD values for the entire operational bandwidth across all elevation planes without significantly affecting the dominant mode of resonance. Compared to conventional DMSA an average XP suppression of 71 dB at the boresight and 33 dB at ± 60° on either side of boresight is obtained across both the principal radiation planes.