Multi-Mirror Quasi-Optical Beamformer for Wide Scanning Linear Apertures

In this article, the design of a low profile multi-mirror quasi-optical beamformer is presented. The beamformer consists of stacked parallel plate waveguides operating with the principal transverse electromagnetic mode. Vertical mirrors and slot-based transitions are used to shape in amplitude and phase the guided mode for feeding a linear aperture located at one edge of the beamformer. A physical optics tool is used to optimize the shape and location of the mirrors for wide scanning. The proposed concept is validated by full-wave simulations by considering the example of a two-mirror design operating in the Ka-band (17.3 GHz - 20.2 GHz) generating nine beams over ± 57° field of view in azimuth with reduced scan losses in the order of 2.5 dB.