H-plane Horn Antenna Research Articles

Phase Corrected Substrate Integrated Waveguide H-Plane Horn Antenna With Embedded Metal-Via Arrays

A novel phase corrected substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) H-plane horn antenna with embedded metal-via arrays is presented. The SIW horn is divided into four subhorns by three metal-via arrays inside the horn. A uniform phase distribution of EM field across the horn aperture is achieved by adjusting the lengths and positions of the metal-via arrays. The proposed horn antenna has a compact profile, and its simulated gain is 7.50 dBi at 35.5 GHz, whereas the simulated gain of a traditional horn antenna without the metal-via arrays is 6.38 dBi. When measured, the gain of the proposed horn antenna is 7.87 dBi at 35.5 GHz, whereas the gain of the traditional horn antenna is 5.58 dBi. Good agreement between the simulated and the measured results is obtained.

Wideband H-Plane Horn Antenna Based on Ridge Substrate Integrated Waveguide (RSIW)

A substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) H-plane sectoral horn antenna, with significantly improved bandwidth, is presented. A tapered ridge, consisting of a simple arrangement of vias on the side flared wall within the multilayer substrate, is introduced to enlarge the operational bandwidth. A simple feed configuration is suggested to provide the propagating wave for the antenna structure. The proposed antenna is simulated by two well-known full-wave packages, Ansoft HFSS and CST Microwave Studio, based on segregate numerical methods. Close agreement between simulation results is reached. The designed antenna shows good radiation characteristics and low VSWR, lower than 2.5, for the whole frequency range of 18-40 GHz.

A DETACHED ZERO INDEX METAMATERIAL LENS FOR ANTENNA GAIN ENHANCEMENT

In this paper, a detached zero index metamaterial lens (ZIML) consisting of metal strips and modifled split ring resonators (MSRRs) is proposed for antenna gain enhancement. The efiective permittivity and permeability of the detached ZIML are designed to synchronously approach zero, which leads the ZIML to having an efiective wave impedance matching with air and near-zero index simultaneously. As a result, neither does the detached ZIML need to be embedded in horns aperture nor depends on auxiliary re∞ectors in enhancing antenna gain, which is quite difierent from conventional ZIMLs. Moreover, the distance between antenna and the detached ZIML slightly afiect the gain enhancement, which further conflrms that the ZIML can be detached from antennas. Simulated results show that the efiective refractive index of the detached ZIML is near zero in a broad frequency range where the efiective relative wave impedance is close to 1. The detached ZIML is fabricated and tested by placing it in front of an H-plane horn antenna. One flnds that evident gain enhancement is obtained from 8.9GHz to 10.8GHz and the greatest gain enhancement reaches up to 4.02dB. In addition, the detached ZIML can also work well at other frequencies by adjusting its geometric parameters to scale, which is demonstrated by designing and simulating two detached ZIMLs with center frequencies of 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz, respectively.

Experimental realisation of integrated THz electromagnetic crystals (EMXT) H-plane horn antenna

An integrated terahertz (THz) H-plane horn antenna made of an electromagnetic crystals (EMXT) straight waveguide feed and a gradually flared horn is investigated. The EMXT structure is composed of metallised periodic square rods with dimensions of 48×48×241 µm (width×length×height). The THz horn antenna is simulated using the finite element method and fabricated by microelectromechanical systems technology on silicon substrate. Measured attenuation loss of the EMXT straight waveguide is 0.17 dB per wavelength at 0.5 THz (λ=600 µm). Good radiation patterns with 25° half power beam width and a low sidelobe of −18.2 dB in the H-plane are demonstrated at 0.5 THz.

Micromachined H-plane horn antenna manufactured using thick SU-8 photoresist

A micromachined H-plane horn antenna designed at 63 GHz is presented. The horn is integrated with an air filled coaxial line to ridge waveguide transition with the ridge waveguide feeding the horn. The antenna is constructed by bonding five layers of gold coated SU-8 photoresist, each 200 m-thick. The performance has been validated experimentally using on-wafer probe measurements. A good match is achieved with low return loss obtained at the designed operating frequency. This proposed design is to be used in three-dimensional phased array beamformers.

A compact substrate integrated waveguide H-plane horn antenna with dielectric arc lens

An H-plane horn antenna constructed into SIW (substrate integrated waveguide) is proposed. It has a dielectric arc lens for better directivity and a simple microstrip transition as feed. The horn, the lens and the transition share the same substrate. The resulting formula from optical principles shows that the suitable dielectric lens can improve the directivity of the antenna significantly. A prototype was fabricated; the antenna size is 39.175 × 14 × 2 mm3. The frequency band is from 25.5 to 28.5 GHz. The measured gain of this antenna is about 9 dB; the bandwidth, at 10 dB return loss, is over 12%. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.

New types of dielectric-loaded horn antennas

This paper presents low-loss dielectric loading techniques for improving some of the radiation characteristics of H-plane horn antennas. Specifically, the paper reports experimental results over new horns loaded with dielectric in the transverse and longitudinal planes with and without air gaps between the dielectric layers or between the dielectric and metallic walls. Sample results are presented showing improvements in the beam width, axial gain, input voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) at the expense of new or increased side lobe level at some frequencies within the passband. Results are also presented to show that the main beam of a novel dielectric-loaded horn can almost be scanned from one wall of the horn to the other in synchronism with frequency sweep within the passband. Finally, a line-of-sight portable communication device employing the characteristics of dielectric-loaded horn antennas is proposed for further research and development.