Ultra-compact Risley-prism design with a 3D-printed transmit-array fed by a radial line slot antenna

Abstract

Satellite-on-the-move systems based on mechanical beam steering can be a cost-effective alternative to phased-arrays. However, these solutions tend to be bulky for accommodating the mechanical displacements and the focal distance of the system (intrinsic to spatially fed array configurations). The Risley Prism mechanical scanning approach, based on the axial rotation of two transmit-arrays (TAs), can overcome some of these shortcomings. In particular, the profile of the lens can be dramatically reduced by integrating the primary source with the first TA (“Prims 1”) into a single leaky wave antenna. In this work we present a lowcost implementation of this concept, consisting of a Radial Line Slot Antenna (RLSA) and a fully dielectric TA. This choice reduces the complexity of the system, as well as, facilitating the integration of these two components. The developed antenna has a profile of (at 29 GHz) and can scan up to 48 degrees with a maximum directivity of 31 dBi.