Planar H-Plane Horn Antenna Based on Groove Gap Waveguide Technology

Abstract

H -plane horn antenna using gap waveguide technology is proposed. The advantage of this technology is its air-filled feature, which improves the impedance matching compared with substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) horn antennas. Corrugated walls as soft surfaces are used on the outer surfaces of the upper and lower horn plates, which act as barriers around the aperture of the antenna and reduce its backlobe levels. The bandwidth of the antenna for $| {{S_{11}}} |$ < -10 dB is 19–28 GHz and the gain varies between 8.5 and 12 dBi. The total efficiency is better than 88% in the operation bandwidth. This structure has the capability of easily integrating with other planar microwave components. As a demonstration, a coupled-resonator filter is integrated with the antenna to select the desired frequency band and cancel the out-of-band harmonics. For the proof of concept, a prototype model is fabricated and tested, where measurement data agree well with the simulation results.