Investigation of Mutual Coupling Effects between L-Band Antennas for the Use in Accurate Transponder Devices

Abstract:
With upcoming spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) missions in L-band, accurate reference targets are needed to achieve full polarimetric calibration of the SAR system. For the next generation of DLR’s Kalibri transponder a novel compact L-band antenna has been designed. As the transponder will be based on a two antenna concept capable of simultaneous reception and re-transmission of a SAR signal, the antenna coupling is a determining factor in the transponder’s design. In this paper the measurement results showing the dependency of the antenna coupling of the distance between two L-band antennas as well as measures to reduce the coupling are presented.