Dielectric Horn Research Articles

Dielectric-Loaded Horn Antenna Design and Simulation Using the Metamaterial Method

In this paper, we propose the design and simulation of a dielectric horn antenna using the metamaterial method; this antenna has a double-layer dielectric waveguide transmission structure. With the continuous development of microwave feed sources, the traditional waveguide systems are no longer able to meet today’s antenna requirements. Consequently, dielectric-loading technology is gradually being applied to design horns. A key advantage of this antenna is its significantly expanded bandwidth of 163.3%. Furthermore, when compared to ridge horns, this dielectric-loaded horn demonstrates superior radiation properties across the entire frequency band, including aperture efficiency (95% in the L band, 65.4% in the S band, 41.5% in the C band, and 28.7% in the X band) and cross-polarization isolation (≥51.6 dB). In addition, before researching the theory of dielectric-loading technology, the modes of the horns should be analyzed. This helps us to better control the hybrid mode. The metamaterial method was applied to achieve stable dielectric properties. We finally conducted experiments on the antenna to validate the relevant theories and feasibility.

Application of dielectric and ТЕМ horns in phased antenna arrays

The effect of the dielectric layer and metal horns on the characteristics of waveguide phased antenna arrays was studied using the finite element method. The geometric dimensions of the horns were optimized for better matching of the antenna array when scanning at an angle θ. Graphs illustrating the dependence of beam width and directivity on the number of elements in one side of the square array are plotted. Radiation patterns of the antenna array are plotted for different numbers of elements on one side of it.

23.1-Gb/s 135-GHz Wireless Transmission Over 4.6-Km and Effect of Rain Attenuation

In this article, we have experimentally demonstrated a fiber-wireless-integration <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$D$</tex-math> </inline-formula> -band (110–170 GHz) transmission system. To extend the wireless transmission distance while maintaining the wireless bit rate as high as possible, we designed high-gain lens horn antenna modules consisting of a pair of dielectric plano-convex lenses and horn antennas for long-haul wireless links. In addition, we employ the Volterra nonlinear equalization (VNE) algorithm based on the multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) structure to precisely compensate for the in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) imbalance and nonlinear impairment of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals mainly caused by photoelectric (O-E) conversion and electric-photo (E-O) conversion. Meanwhile, one of the methods adopted in our experiment to decrease the influence of nonlinearity on high-order QAM signals is coupling the high-order modulation format with the probabilistic shaping (PS) technology. As a result of outdoor field experimental verification, the demonstration at 135 GHz carrier with a net rate of 23.1 Gb/s over 10 km optic-fiber and 4.6 km wireless transmission distance has been successfully carried out. It is, as we know, the first time that a record-breaking product of net bit rate and wireless transmission distance, i.e., 23.1 Gb/s <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 4.6 km <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$=$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 106.3 Gb/s <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\cdot$</tex-math> </inline-formula> km, has been accomplished based on a fiber-wireless-integration system. Also, for the first time, we have measured the effect of rain attenuation for the 135 GHz millimeter-wave (mm-wave) wireless link and established more accurate rainfall models for the Shanghai region of China by comparing them with multiple rainfall models. This work can be used as a complement to the International Telecommunication Union-Radiocommunication sector (ITU-R) recommendations.

A Wideband High-Gain Dielectric Horn-Lens Antenna for Wireless Communications and UWB Applications

A wideband high-gain dielectric horn-lens antenna (DHLA) for wireless communications and ultra-wideband (UWB) applications, featuring 122% fractional bandwidth, is presented. The antenna, consisting of a dielectric horn equipped with a spherical-axicon dielectric lens that increases and equalizes the gain within the operating band, is placed on a PCB featuring a wideband eight-shaped slot fed by a tapered microstrip line employed to excite the radiating system. The lens, integrated within the body of the dielectric horn, has the property of focusing the RF energy near its vertex on an extended frequency band, thus ensuring compact size, excellent field coupling with the antenna excitation system, and a significant increase of antenna gain. The antenna operates in the 3–12.4 GHz frequency range with relatively flat group delay, making it suitable for operating with narrowband, broadband, and impulsive UWB signals. The antenna can work properly without or with a metal reflector useful to enhance gain (up to 19 dBi), improve the front-to-back ratio, and reduce the impact of the antenna characteristics from the installation site. CST Studio Suite, implementing a full-wave locally conformal finite integration technique (FIT), was employed to design and characterize the antenna. The antenna characteristics estimated numerically were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results performed on an antenna prototype.

A Wideband High-Gain Circularly-Polarized Dielectric Horn Antenna Equipped With Lamé-Axicon Stacked-Disk Lens for Remote Sensing, Air Traffic Control and Satellite Communications

A wideband high-gain circularly polarized (CP) shaped dielectric horn-lens antenna (SDHLA) operating in the frequency band between 6.7 and 18.2 GHz [fractional impedance bandwidth (FIBW) of 92.4%] with a 3-dB axial-ratio in the frequency range from 8.1 to 16.3 GHz [fractional axial-ratio bandwidth (FARBW) of 67.2%], is presented. The antenna, composed of a suitably shaped dielectric horn, integrated with a super-ellipsoidal-axicon dielectric lens made out of stacked thin dielectric disks, is mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) where a broadband microstrip line terminated with a radial stub is used to excite a S-shaped slot through which the circular polarization is achieved. Parameterized 3D Lamé curves describe the optimal geometries of horn and lens profiles. The antenna features a peak realized gain exceeding 13.1 dBi that is beneficial in a variety of applications, such as digital video broadcasting (DVB), remote sensing, weather monitoring, satellite communications, and air traffic control. The full-wave electromagnetic solver CST Studio Suite™, based on a locally conformal finite integration technique (FIT), was employed to design and characterize the antenna. The antenna characteristics estimated by FIT were found to be in good agreement with the experimental measurements performed on an antenna prototype.

Compact Shortened V‐Band Conical Dielectric Core Horns Corrected by Lenses

AbstractA procedure of designing ultra‐short conical horns corrected by lenses, is boarded at this work. The method takes advantages of the axisymmetric character of the conical horns to project the problem to a bidimensional mesh, reducing the computational time and making easy the optimization of the device. This approach is not used for most popular commercial codes which employ a 3D analysis of the whole antenna. Horn antennas exhibit some remarkable radiation characteristics as they are high directivity, low crosspolar level and symmetric patterns with low return losses on a reasonable bandwidth. The price to pay is handle devices very long and weighed, so it is demanding to find lines of design to shorten and make compact horns to be incorporated to the current communication systems. In this work, we show the advantages to use a double convex lens together with a dielectric core, added to the horn, to achieve a compact and shortened horn maintaining a good performance. Conical horns, of a size as small as one wavelength, can be achieved. To reach such shortening, a double convex lens and a dielectric core must be added to the antenna. The parameters of the final prototype, at 60 GHz, are the following: Length: ≈λ, Directivity = 20 dBi, Cross polar Peak = −19.1 dB, Beam width on copular plane = 18.3°, Side Lobe Levels lower than −20 dB (both H and E plane), Return losses = −30.7 dB, and presenting an smooth frequency behavior on a wide bandwidth.

Transition Structure Between Coaxial Cable and Dielectric Rod Waveguide in Microwave Frequency

The dielectric waveguide in THz and millimeter circuit is widely researched. However, it is rarely researched in a microwave frequency. In this article, a dielectric rod waveguide (DRW) is proposed with low transmission loss in microwave frequency. For the purpose of impedance matching, a transition section composed of the metal-coated dielectric cavity, and a dielectric horn is presented to match the impedance between the coaxial cable and the dielectric rod waveguide. Finally, the dielectric rod waveguide and the transition section have been fabricated for experimental verification. To obtain the propagation constant of the DRW, the thru-line (TL) calibration is used in measurement. The simulation and measurement results show an effective conversion between the coaxial cable and the dielectric rod waveguide.

A High-Gain Dielectric Resonator Antenna With Plastic-Based Conical Horn for Millimeter-Wave Applications

A novel high-gain dielectric resonator antenna, featuring a peak realized gain of 11.3 dBi over a fractional bandwidth of 16.6% around 30 GHz, is presented. The proposed antenna structure, excited by a slot-coupled microstrip line, is composed of a cylindrical dielectric resonator and of a truncated plastic-based conical horn useful to enhance the gain. An annular perturbation notch is realized in the dielectric horn to achieve a better focusing of the RF energy along the antenna boresight direction, while reducing the sidelobe levels (SSLs). The presented antenna design achieves SSLs below −10 dB for both the E - and H -plane so to meet the requirements of next-generation 5G wireless communication protocols and of low-cost satellite and mobile systems.

A dielectric horn antenna and lightweight radar system for material inspection

In this paper, we set up a lightweight, frequency-domain radar system using a handheld vector network analyser combined with air-coupled and dielectric-coupled horn antennas. A new positioning system with a binary barcode ruler, reading webcam and an algorithm for its recognition was developed. The radar system was tested on several media using both the air-coupled and dielectric-coupled antennas, namely, on a laboratory model containing sand and on a concrete block with a metallic reinforcement. The resulting GPR images demonstrated the good functioning of the radar system. In our experiments, both antennas and the whole lightweight radar system provided radar images which permitted to clearly detect the buried objects. Furthermore, the dielectric-coupled horn antenna showed better coupling with the investigated materials, resulting in higher-quality radar images.

On Calculation of the Amplitude–Phase Distribution of the Field Radiated from an Open End of a Rectangular Dielectric Waveguide

The problem of calculating the amplitude–phase distribution of the field radiated from an open end of a rectangular dielectric waveguide expanding along one of its sides (a plane dielectric horn) is considered. The problem of diffraction on the junction of a feed dielectric waveguide and the horn is solved by the domain decomposition method using a model in the form of a screened dielectric waveguide. The amplitude–phase distributions over the distance from the end of the radiator are studied. The possibility of using the screened model for solving the problem of radiation from the open end of a dielectric horn is shown.

Metallic, 3D-Printed, K-Band-Stepped, Double-Ridged Square Horn Antennas

This paper presents K-band-stepped, double-ridged square horn antennas fabricated by metallic 3D printing technology in copper (85% copper and 15% stannum) and aluminum alloy (89.5% aluminum, 10% silicon, and 0.5% magnesium). Compared with the popular dielectric 3D-printed horn antenna, the metallic counterpart features better mechanical robustness in terms of material. Moreover, the metallic horns are printed in one piece in one run, different from the dielectric horns that are printed in split pieces and electroplated, they simplify the process and thus result in reduced cost. The agreement between the simulation and measurement results verified the antenna’s performance. Both the 3D-printed copper and aluminum alloy antenna have an impedance bandwidth across the K-band, with a maximum gain of 13.23 dBi @ 25 GHz and 13.5 dBi @ 24 GHz, respectively. The metallic, 3D-printed horn antennas are preferable alternatives to replace traditionally-fabricated antennas.

Wideband H‐plane dielectric horn antenna

By flaring a dielectric waveguide in the H-plane, an H-plane dielectric horn is formed, which could be directly excited by an SIW feed. However, matching and radiation performances are poor due to the thinness of the substrate. To improve these performances, some periodic parallel strips are printed both on the top and bottom planes of the dielectric horn. These strips guide and leak the electromagnetic waves gradually along the horn, finally enhancing the end-fire radiation both in H-plane and E-plane. Moreover, they increase the impedance bandwidth up to 38% in Ka-band, and improve the realised gain by around 2 dB. Indeed, a gain of 14.3 dBi is achieved at the centre frequency, with a front-to-back ratio of 27 dB, a side-lobe level of −22 dB in the H-plane, and the narrowed E-plane and H-plane half-power beamwidth of about 20°. The measured and simulated results agree with each other very well. In addition, the proposed H-plane horn antenna is very compact, low cost, and could be easily integrated.

A 750–1000 GHz $H$ -Plane Dielectric Horn Based on Silicon Technology

A wideband THz H-plane dielectric horn antenna based on silicon (Si) technology is proposed in this paper. The antenna can be integrated with the planar structure circuit and the dielectric ridge waveguide. To fabricate the proposed antenna, the deep reactive ion etching high-resistivity Si fabrication process is used. The size of the proposed antenna is $3.13 \times 4 \times 0.1$ mm3. The operating frequency of the antenna ranges from 750 to 1000 GHz, which corresponds to a fractional impedance bandwidth of 28.6%. The antenna has a narrow beamwidth in the H-plane and a high gain. To test this antenna, the characterization of the metal waveguide diagonal horn for measurement is analyzed. Then the non-contact measurement method is applied to measure the designed dielectric horn. The simulated radiation efficiency of the antenna is higher than 80% while the measured gain of the antenna is larger than 8 dBi. Measured H-plane radiation patterns from the proposed antenna are presented and show reasonable agreement with the simulated results.

X‐band printed fresnel zone plate antenna: Design, simulation, and field measurements

ABSTRACTDesign, simulation, and measurements of a horn‐fed X‐Band Fresnel Lens antenna is presented. The influence of the number of rings, substrate of choice and the respective near and far‐field measurements are shown. The antenna is designed to be used in a free‐space materials measurement setup, as a low cost and rugged alternative to dielectric horn antennas, therefore its focal area is defined and characterized. Measurements confirmed the simulation evaluations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:2604–2609, 2015

위성통신용 삼중대역 동시사용 안테나 설계

As satellite communications services are showing gradual growth, so are the needs for dual or tri-band antennas greater than performance of conventional single-band antennas. In this paper, a simultaneously operable tri-band antenna for SATCOM(Satellite Communications) is proposed. It is different from conventional methods of implementing tri-band through replaceable horns, while it is designed with a tri-band feed assembly composed of corrugated and dielectric horns and reflectors of gregorian type to transmit and receive tri-band of X, Ku and Ka band simultaneously. And simulated and measured values were compared and analyzed for characteristics of the proposed antenna. In the results, radiation patterns of the proposed tri-band antenna were close to the simulated ones and also met specifications.

Arrays and New Antenna Topologies for Increasing THz Power Generation Using Photomixers

Power limitations in CW THz generation imposed by conventional photomixers (“antenna emitters”, AEs) are the major drawbacks on THz generation. From the antenna point of view, two different strategies are proposed to increase the generated power: optimized arrays and lenses arrangements and the use of new dielectric horn antennas. Then, using multiple small lenses, one per each single element, instead of a large one, bigger than the array, makes the generated power much higher. In addition, horn antennas etched in the substrate are considered in order to reduce the energy distribution scattering. Finally, some manufacturing issues are discussed.

Gain Enhancement by Dielectric Horns in the Terahertz Band

A new geometry for the design of antennas in the Terahertz band is presented. The structure is based on a horn antenna etched in the substrate and fed with a planar printed antenna used for generation of terahertz radiation, designed for the 200 GHz to 3 THz range. For the proposed antenna, the energy distribution through the substrate is reduced towards an increase in the gain of the system, at least, 8 dB in a 1:10 bandwidth. The structure has been measured showing the expected behavior in the low band.

UWB Dual-Linear Polarization Dielectric Horn Antennas as Reflector Feeds

An ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) dielectric horn antenna (DHA) design is presented. This DHA design provides dual-linear polarization with similar Eand H-plane patterns and a near-constant beamwidth from 2 to 18 GHz. The fixed phase center makes it an excellent candidate for feeding a reflector. The DHA is composed of a resistively terminated broadband field launcher, a solid dielectric horn body, and microwave absorbers for suppressing lateral waves and back lobes. Desirable beamwidth can be achieved by choosing a specific horn angle. A design example that shows a beam aspect ratio (BAR) close to one and approximately 110-degree 10-dB beamwidth is presented. The measured results are validated by full-wave simulations with the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method

Optimization of arbitrarily shaped dielectric axisymmetric horns through finite elements and the annealing algorithm

AbstractThis work addresses the design of dielectric axisymmetric horns with arbitrarily shape profile. The optimization is carried out by an adaptive version of the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. In this way we avoid local minimum. No information about initial shape is introduced. The analysis is performed by a hybrid method based on the segmentation technique, the finite‐element method and a matrix Lanczos–Padè algorithm (SFELP), adapted to problems with axial symmetry. A set of example designs are presented to verify the technique. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 1074–1079, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21605

Free Space Measurement Method with Parallel Electromagnetic Wave Beam by Using Dielectric Lenses and Horn Antennas for Reflectivity of Electromagnetic Absorbers in Millimeter Waves

A free-space method is in wide spread use for the reflectivity measurement of electromagnetic wave absorbers (EMA) in VHF and UHF range. In the free-space method, the reflection levels from EMA and from the metal plate with same size as the EMA are measured, and the reflectivity is calculated from their ratio. The incident angle such as normal or oblique must be defined, and the polarization of electromagnetic (EM) wave must be specified to be TE, TM, or circularly-polarized mode. In this paper, a parallel EM wave beam method using dielectric lenses in front of horn antennas was studied experimentally. Electromagnetic wave absorption was measured with the vertical and the oblique incidence by using this parallel EM wave beam. This measurement system has following features: • It is compact because equiphase parallel EM wave beam was obtained in a short distance from the dielectric lens. • It requires no anechoic chamber because of little multi-reflection due to high directivity of parallel EM wave beam. • It allows a large oblique incident measurement by using high directive parallel EM wave beam.