Advantages of Plate Antennas over Loop Antennas for Circular Polarization—Its Application in Array Antenna with a Simplified Feed

We analyze square antennas with one and quasi-two sources to reveal the relationship between loop and plate antennas. First, using the moment method, one-source antennas with corner truncation are investigated versus antenna height above the ground plane. As the height increases, the CP wave bandwidth of the plate antenna increases 17% for a 3 dB axial ratio criterion, whereas the loop antenna’s bandwidth remains less than 3%. Next, we study quasi-two-source antennas without corner truncation versus antenna height. The plate antenna’s bandwidth is found to reach 30%, which is wider than that of a loop antenna by a factor of two. Last, the plate antenna with quasi-two sources is applied in an array antenna, whose properties are compared to those of the corresponding loop antenna array. We present experimental results to verify the simulated results.