Planar Orthomode Transducers (OMTs) are commonly used for polarization measurements at millimeter wave-lengths. We present an optical coupling study of an octave bandwidth planar OMT in circular waveguide based on 3D electromagnetic simulations. We quantify results through metrics such as co- and cross- polar coupling, reflection, and waveguide leakage as a function of the OMT construction geometry. We evaluate the tolerance of these metrics to the waveguide backshort distance, probe impedance, waveguide gap size, and waveguide-to-probe misalignment. Two probe geometries are studied: the ‘classic’ shape used in several previous experiments, and a new ‘wineglass’ geometry. The bandwidth ratio of both optimized OMTs is 2.0:1, defined where co-polar coupling exceeds 80%. The average co-polar coupling, cross-polar coupling, reflection, and waveguide leakage of the classic probe is approximately 93%, < -50 dB, 5% and 2%, respectively and depends slightly on the exact frequency range. The wineglass probe co-polar coupling is ∼ 2% larger. Radial waveguide misalignment at the level of 4% of the waveguide radius can result in up to a 10% reduction in co-polar coupling and -20 dB cross-polar coupling in one polarization. These results may be used to guide the detector module designs of future Cosmic Microwave Background experiments and beyond.
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