Patent ID: 8339327

Claim:
A circularly-polarized antenna, comprising: a conductive backplane including a plurality of vertical, planar, rectangular panels forming a right prism; a vertical array of equally-sized, planar patch radiators, disposed on one of the backplane panels and having a radiator spacing of one wavelength, each radiator having a face and four edges, each edge having a length of approximately one half wavelength; a feed stripline, disposed on the backplane panel, having an input coupled to a coaxial feed cable, and a pair of outputs, orthogonal in position and phase, coupled to each of the radiators; a second vertical array of equally-sized, planar patch radiators, disposed on one of the backplane panels and having a radiator spacing of one wavelength, each radiator having a face and four edges, each edge having a length of approximately one half wavelength; a second feed stripline, disposed on the backplane panel, having an input coupled to a coaxial feed cable, and a pair of outputs, orthogonal in position and phase, coupled to each of the radiators; and a power splitter including a single input and a plurality of outputs, each coupled to an input of the feed striplines, wherein the power splitter provides an unequal power distribution to the feed striplines.