High Gain Wideband Dual Circularly Polarized Microstrip Patch Antenna for GNSS Reflectometry

In this paper, the design and development of high gain wideband dual circularly polarized microstrip patch antenna for GNSS Reflectometry application is presented. The proposed antenna comprises electromagnetically coupled stacked patch (EMCP) configuration with hybrid quadrature coupler to generate dual circular polarization. The antenna has been developed and characterized. The measured gain of the antenna is better than 8.5 dBi for both the polarization. It has 29.8 percent and 30.4 percent measured 10 dB return loss and 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth respectively. The antenna is used as a nadir looking antenna in GNSS receiver for Reflectometry applications.