Broadside/Endfire Switched Beam Double Ridge-Gap Waveguide H-plane Horn Antenna

In this paper, H-plane horn antenna based on double ridge-gap waveguide (RGW) technology is designed for satellite applications at 13.5 GHz. The double RGW surfaces are based on AMC-AMC parallel plate region around the metal horn-shaped ridge to enforce the propagating wave through the two parallel ridges. The AMC nail unit-cell has a stop-band of 10.5–22 GHz. The double-ridge horn antenna radiates end-fire beam along the x-axes with maximum gain of 9.45 dBi and high front-to-back (FBR) of 14.3 dB. A vertical beam switching from end-fire direction to broadside direction is achieved by adding rows of nail unit-cells in the front of the horn aperture. A metamaterial (MM) polarizer is added to the antenna structure to radiated circularly polarized waves.