The different profile options available to designers of circularly-symmetric feed horns are outlined. Some new horn profiles are introduced and the radiation pattern properties of these horns are described.

Profile options for feed horn design

The world's first additively manufactured dielectric loaded profiled conical horn antenna is presented in this letter With a smooth profiled flare and two loaded dielectric core materials, this horn offers symmetrical patterns, wideband gain, low sidelobe level, and low cross polarization Additive manufacturing, including electroplating, has been employed to address the fabrication challenges The measurement results show that the fabrication process produces a horn antenna with reduced mass and volume (<200 g with three-dimensional-printed flange) and high antenna performance with realized gain 16–20 dBi, sidelobe level −22 to −19 dB across the frequency range from 9 to 15 GHz

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Additively Manufactured Profiled Conical Horn Antenna With Dielectric Loading

Several smooth-walled axis-symmetrical dielectric-loaded horn antennas with large flare angles have been designed and characterized in Ka-band They have been optimized using an in-house CAD tool based on the BoR-FDTD technique and genetic algorithms Two antenna configurations have been compared: in the first case, only the metallic profile of the horn is shaped and the radiating aperture remains flat, whereas in the second one, the shapes of the horn profile and the aperture are simultaneously optimized The impact of both techniques in terms of antenna size and performance is discussed An original fabrication process (metallized foam) has been developed to produce monolithic prototypes Two prototypes with optimized shapes have been fabricated, and their main characteristics (radiation characteristics, bandwidth, compactness, weight) are compared to those of a standard conical horn used as a reference (same flare angle, same diameter, but without shaped profile) Our results show that the proposed design and fabrication procedures enable us to produce reduced-size horns with high radiation efficiency; the total loss, including the transition loss, is lower than 1 dB in average around 295 GHz

Smooth-Walled Light-Weight Ka-Band Shaped Horn Antennas in Metallized Foam

The design, simulation, and measurement of a complete microstrip line-fed dielectrically guided horn antenna are presented. The proposed antenna achieves similarly high gains as compared to traditional air-filled horn antennas, is simpler than a typical array design, and can easily be fabricated using typical two dimensional substrate machining processes. An H-guide, operating in the fundamental TE00 mode, slowly tapers into a “gapped” H-guide, or dielectrically guided horn, where a large air gap separates the center dielectric and metallic plates. A wideband Bezier shaped microstrip to H-guide transition feeding structure is fabricated using a low loss Rogers 5880 substrate and integrated with the proposed antenna. The fabricated prototype operates from 8 to 16 GHz with a peak gain of approximately 16 dBi.

Wideband Dielectrically Guided Horn Antenna with Microstrip Line to H-Guide Feed

This paper is related to show the possibility of using short length standard conical horn in satellite broadcasting receivers. In this kind of applications the horn must fulfill very strict requirements, among them, there are: high gain, broad bandwidth, low side and back lobes generation and low cross-polarization. To obtain these features the employment of dielectric load is studied. Here is proved that the use of a dielectric load in short standard conical horns can satisfy all the main electrical characteristics for that application. The results presented here allow us to employ the short feeder in the DBS parabolic reflector antennas, easing the mechanical restrictions related with other choices like large standard conical, corrugated or stepped horns

Dielectric load in short standard conical horns for satellite applications

The dielectric cone loaded horn consists of a central cone of solid or foam dielectric supported by a second dielectric with a metallised outer layer. The horn has low cross-polarisation over a wide bandwidth and the absence of flanges means better utilisation of the aperture area. The dielectric gives an additional method of controlling the fields in the horn. The authors investigates dielectric loaded horns with a shaped profile. They show that the profiled dielectric horn gives useful control over the performance of the horn. It can be designed in two distinct ways. Either the length of the horn can be kept the same as a linear tapered horn which will give improved electrical performance, or the length (and weight) of the horn can be reduced by comparison with the linear horn, whilst maintaining similar low levels of cross-polarisation.

B. Philips

Papers

Profiled dielectric loaded horns