PolyStrata® X/Ku/K/Ka-band, Dual-Polarized, Tightly Coupled Dipole Scannable Focal Plane Array

A broadband, dual-polarized array that supports both electronic scanning and fixed-beam applications in a modular, scalable architecture is presented. A tightly-coupled dipole array is designed to cover 9.5-37 GHz. Six different instrument bands, both radiometry and synthetic aperture radar (SAR), share the common aperture with co-located phase centers. Element-level diplexing is demonstrated to enable precise aperture control across all bands. Amplitude tapering is implemented with unequal power combiners to control sidelobe levels and help equalize beamwidth across frequency for feeding a reflector. Measured realized gain patterns are provided vs array code predictions and ideal directivity calculations. Better than 10 dB return loss is measured for all six instrument bands. Digital scanning of measured sub-array patterns to 30 degrees is demonstrated in MATLAB.