HORN ANTENNA PPT CONTENTS

antenna
In radio engineering, an antenna (American English) or aerial (British English) is the interface
between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal
conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver.[1] In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies an
electric current to the antenna's terminals, and the antenna radiates the energy from the current
as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). In reception, an antenna intercepts some of the power
of a radio wave in order to produce an electric current at its terminals, that is applied to a receiver
to be amplified. Antennas are essential components of all radio equipment.[2]

Intro/histr
The first horn antenna was designed with pioneering experiments through
microwaves by a radio researcher namely Jagadish Chandra Bose in 1897.
The current horn antenna was invented separately in 1938 by G. C.
Southworth & Wilmer Barrow. After that frequent research was done to
explain the design of horn-antenna, discover the radiation pattern & its
applications in several fields. These antennas are very famous in the
domains of waveguide transmission & microwave. So, these antennas are
frequently called microwave antennas.

What is Horn Antenna?

A Horn antenna is a type of aperture antenna which is specially designed
for microwave frequencies. The end of the antenna is widened or in the
horn shape. Because of this structure, there is larger directivity so that the
emitted signal can be easily transmitted to long distances. Horn antennas
operate in microwave frequency, so the frequency range of these antennas
is super high or ultra-high which ranges from 300 MHz – 30 GHz.
These antennas are used as feed horns for big antennas like parabolic
antennas directive antennas, etc. The benefits of using these antennas are
simple design & adjustment, low SWR (standing wave ratio), moderate
directivity, and broad bandwidth.

Horn Antenna Design & Working

Horn antenna design can be done with a flared waveguide which is formed
as a horn. These are used to transmit and receive RF microwave signals.
Usually, these are used in combination with waveguide feeds & direct radio
waves within a narrow beam. Here, the flared portion can be in any shape
like square, conical or rectangular. For proper working, this antenna should
be in minimum size. If the wavelength is very large or the horn size is very
small then the antenna will not work properly.

In this antenna, the fraction of incident energy can be radiated from the
entry of the waveguide and the rest of the energy will be reflected back from
the same entry because of the open entry, the poor impedance matching
will exist in between the space & waveguide. Also, at the edges of the
waveguide, diffraction affects the poor radiating capacity of the waveguide.
So to overcome the drawbacks of the waveguide, its end is opened in an
electromagnetic horn form. So that a smooth transition can be allowed in
between the space & waveguide thus offering better directivity toward the
radio wave.

By changing the waveguide like a horn structure, the existing discontinuity

in between the space & waveguide, 377 ohms impedance is eliminated. So
this provides the incident energy to be emitted in the forwarding direction
by decreasing the diffraction on the edges. Therefore the transmitting
antenna’s directivity can be enhanced with superior gain.

The working of the horn antenna is as follows, once the waveguide’s one
end is excited then the field can be generated. In general, the fields within
the waveguide & free space will transmit in a similar way. But, in the case
of propagation with the waveguide, the pnm,ropagating field can be
controlled through the waveguide walls so the field will not pass spherically
as this is not the case through free-space propagation.

Once the traversing field arrives at the waveguide end then it transmits in the same way as the
free space. So, at the waveguide end, spherical wavefronts can be attained.

Types of Horn Antenna

Horn antennas are classified into different types pyramidal, conical and
exponential.

Pyramidal Horn Antenna

As the name suggests, this antenna is in a pyramid shape through a
rectangular cross-section. This antenna can be formed by flaring both the
waveguide walls. In this antenna, a rectangular waveguide is utilized & the
flaring can be done within both the direction of magnetic and electric field
vectors. These antennas are simply used to radiate linearly polarized radio
waves & used with rectangular waveguides.
Sectoral Horn Antenna
It is a type of antenna where only one pair of faces are flared whereas the
other pair is in parallel. It generates a fan-shaped thin beam in the flared
side’s plane, however broad in the narrow side’s plane. These types of
antennas are frequently used as feed horns, especially for wide search
radar antennas.

Sectoral Type Antenna

So in this antenna, flaring can be performed simply through one of the

waveguide walls. Further, these are classified into two types E-plane and
H-plane.

E-plane
Once one of the waveguide walls in an antenna is flared with the electric
field vector direction is called an E-plane antenna.

H-plane
Once the waveguide walls in an antenna are flared with the magnetic field
vector direction then it is called an H-plane antenna.
Conical Horn Antenna
When an antenna horn is in a cone shape with a circular cross-section is
known as a conical horn antenna. These antennas are simply used through
cylindrical waveguides. A conical antenna formation is an effect of a
circular waveguide flaring. A circular horn antenna can be either biconical
or conical within nature.

Conical Type

Exponential Horn Antenna

These antennas are sometimes called scalar horn antennas. As compared
to another horn antenna, this antenna is an alternative that has an
exponentially tapered face that forms a curved plane from the antenna
opening to the termination of the waveguide.

Exponential Horn Antenna

This antenna is known as an exponential horn antenna because the

separating space among the sides increases exponentially like a function of
length. These types of antennas provide a constant impedance to a huge
frequency so there is less possibility of internal reflections. This type of
design will reduce the number of internal reflections, permit a constant
impedance & electrical performance over an extremely broad bandwidth.

Corrugated Horn Antenna

This type of antenna includes grooves or parallel slots along t and is
transverse toward the axis of the antenna. As compared to the wavelength
of operation, these designs features are small, allowing extremely low
sidelobes & cross-polarization levels above the bandwidth.

Corrugated Horn Antenna

These antennas have many benefits like small side lobes and wider
bandwidth. The corrugated horn provides a nearly symmetrical design
including the E & H plane beam-widths being almost identical. So, these
antennas are used as feed horns in radio telescopes & satellite dishes.

Gain of Horn Antenna

The gain of horn antenna can be calculated very easily through design
parameters of horn antenna like axial length, path difference, flare
angle, and aperture dimension. Generally, Pyramidal horns are
designed to give optimal gain. So the gain of this antenna over an
isotropic source that equally emits in all directions can be simply derived
from the following formula:
Gain = 4πAeA/λ^2
The gain formula for a conical horn antenna can be expressed as

Gain = (π dλ^)2 eA
Where

‘A’ is the physical region of the aperture

‘d’ is the diameter of an antenna aperture

‘λ’ is the wavelength

‘eA’ is the aperture efficiency

The operating of this antenna can be done very efficiently. So the flare of
this antenna gives a flat match among the free space & waveguide. Its
angle will affect many properties like gain & directivity.

Horn Antenna Radiation Pattern

The horn antenna radiation pattern is a Spherical Wavefront which is
shown in the following figure. In this antenna, the waves move as spherical
wavefronts to downward of a horn through their source at the top of the
horn known as the phase center.

Radiation Pattern

The electric & magnetic fields pattern at the aperture plane at the entrance
of the horn will determine the radiation pattern. As the wavefronts are
spherical, then phase will be increased smoothly from the aperture plane
edges to the center, due to the dissimilarity within the center point length &
the edge points from the apex point which is known as the phase error.

This error will be increased through the flare angle, so increases the
beamwidth & decreases the gain by providing wider beamwidths horns
than parabolic dishes. Once the horn size is increased, then phase error
will be increased and provide a wider radiation pattern to the horn.

Maintaining the beamwidth narrow needs a longer horn to maintain the

phase error stable. The rising phase error restricts the size of aperture for
practical horns to 15 wavelengths because larger apertures need long
horns impractically. So this restricts the practical horns gain to 30 dBi & the
equivalent smallest beam width to 5 to 10°.

Advantages
The advantages of a horn antenna include the following.
 These antennas can operate over a wide bandwidth, wide range of
frequencies since they don’t have resonant elements.
 The beamwidth of the horn antenna is 10:1 ratio (1 GHz –
10 GHz) which is common and 20:1 is possible.
 Designing is simple.
 They are also simple to connect to the waveguide & a coaxial
feeder.
 These antennas have a low SWR (standing wave ratio that means
they reduce standing waves.
 Good impedance matching.
 Its performance is stable for the entire range of frequencies.
 Small minor lobes can be formed.
 These antennas are used as feed horns for large parabolic
antennas.
 Better directivity.
 Avoided standing waves.
 The nonexistence of a resonance element within the construction
allows it to work over a wide bandwidth.
 It is extremely directional within nature thus providing higher
directivity.
 It provides fewer reflections.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of horn antennae include the following.
 These antennas will radiate energy in spherical wavefront shape,
thus this antenna does not provide a directive or sharp beam.
 They have limited gain like 20 dB, so in order to enhance
the antenna gain, the opening of the horn should be made larger
so that the length of the horn will become excessive.
 Flare angle design will decide the directivity.
 The length of the flare & Flare angle should not be extremely
small.
 The antenna’s directivity depends on the flare angle.
 The flare dimensions must be adequately large otherwise it will
make the antenna bulky sometimes.
Applications
The applications of horn antennae include the following.
  These are used mainly for astronomical studies.
 These are used in microwave-based applications.
 These can be used as feed elements.
 These are used in laboratories to measure different antenna
parameters.
 At microwave frequencies, these are used wherever moderate
gains are adequate.
 The horn dimensions must be high for high gain to use in
moderate gain operations.
 These types of antennas are applicable in speed enforcement
cameras to keep away from reflections that interrupt the desired
response.
 Parabolic reflectors can be excited by feeding elements like horn
antennas. So the higher directivity provided through this antenna
permits it to light up the reflector.
Thus, this is all about an overview of horn antenna, types, and their
applications. These antennas are very popular in the microwave region
which provides less VSWR, high gain, fairly wide bandwidth, etc.

Refrences
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_(radio)
2) Fundamentals of Aperture Antennas and Arrays:
From Theory to Design, Fabrication and Testing,
Author(s):Trevor S. Bird
3)
4) https://www.elprocus.com/horn-antenna/
5) https://r.search.yahoo.com/
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