Design of a Transmission-Type Polarization-Insensitive and Angularly Stable Polarization Rotator by Using Characteristic Modes Theory

A novel design strategy for realizing a transmission-type polarization rotator of linearly polarized (LP) plane waves by exploiting the characteristic modes (CMs) theory is described. Design guidelines for the excitation of two current modes on a frequency selective surface (FSS), both exhibiting a circularly polarized (CP) radiated field, are provided to obtain the polarization rotation. The proposed converter exhibits remarkable performance also in the case of oblique incidence and a polarization-insensitive response thanks to the FSS unit cell compactness along with its fourfold rotational symmetry. Specifically, it provides a 3 dB cross-polar transmission percentage bandwidth up to 16.5% with a minimum insertion loss (IL) of 0.1 dB for a normally impinging plane wave whereas in case of an incidence angle of 60° the 3 dB cross-polar transmission percentage bandwidth turns out to be around 14% with a minimum IL of 0.7 dB. Measurements on a realized prototype are in good agreement with simulations, confirming the reliability of the proposed theoretical study.