Grid-Loaded Step Reflector Antenna with TM₀₁-Mode Excitation

A reflector antenna excited by TM<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">01</inf> circular waveguide mode is studied. Since the conventional reflector antenna with steps cancels out half of the polarized components in the main beam direction, the polarization loss increases, theoretically by 3 dB. Therefore, we propose an antenna to improve the gain by loading a metal grid on the step reflector surface, as compared to the conventional antenna design. Prototype verification shows the effectiveness of the antenna.