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SIMULATED CORRUGATED FEED BORN ANTENNA Stephen Rodrigues st.Paul's Collese Kalamassery,Cochin 683 503.,INDIA. and P.Mohanan & K.G.Nair Department of Electronics Cochin University of Science and Technology Cochin 682 022, INDIA. Abstract: A technique of developing a new type of feed horn with identical radiation characteristics of a metallic coruggated horn has been presented in this paper.This horn antenna with low back and sidelobe levels can be used as a substitute for a metallic corrugated horn with added advantages of high- gain, low cross polarisation, low cost and light-weight. The convenience of photolithographic technique of fabricating Simulated Corrugated Surfaces (SCS) opens a possibility for mass production of such horns with simpler methods. Introduction: Rectangular or circular metallic corrugated horns are increasingly popular because of various advantages like low back and sidelobes [1,2,3,4].However, cutting the corrugations with permissible tolerance in metallic sheets to fabricate such horn is a tedious and time consuming job. Recently Lier et.al.[5] have reported a novel conical feed horn using dielectric and periodic conducting strips. It is established that the conducting strip gratings with metallic ground plane on a dielectric substrate are similar to metallic corrugated plates [6]. In this paper, by presenting the radiation characteristics of a square pyramidal horn using SCS as the E-plane walls, a technique of developing a new type of feed horn with identical radiation characteristics of a metallic corrugated horn has been proposed. The geometry of the Simulated Corrugated Horn (SCH) antenna is shown in fig.1. The dielectric thickness at the throat region is selected as h / 2 so that the surface admittance is infinity. At the aperture the thickness is selected as % / / 4 j 3 so that it will suport the balanced hybrid mode, where is the wavelength as suggested by Dragone et.al.[l] and 7 is the dielectric constant of the substrate (2.56). A gradual tapering of the point (P ) as nearly one 'h is made from throat to . shown in the figure 1

90CH2776-3/0000-OYX4S1 .oO 01990 IEEE

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~lg.1. Geometry of t h e SCH Antenna Period d= 0 . 1 2 5 1 a/d= 0 . 5 .

Fig.2. shows the return loss of the SCH antenna. From the figure it is clear that in the X-band frequencies, the return loss is better than -17 dB. The radiation patterns of
511 l o g MAG REF -15.0 dB 3.0 dB/ -17.292 dB hP SC HORN
C

A
D

MARKER 1 8.58875

GHz

START STOP

7.500000000 GHz 14.000000000 GHz

~i~.2. Return loss of t h e SCH Antenna

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the SCH antenna are measured in a tapered anechoic chamber and instrumentation involving use of Network Analyzer HP8410C. Typical E and H-plane radiation patterns of the SCH antenna is shown in fig.3. at 9 5 GHz. The sidelobe and . backlobe levels of the E-plane patterns are better than the H-plane patterns. The crosspolar level along the boresight is found to be better than - 4 0 dB at the designed frequency. It is also noted that the gain of the SCH antenna is always better than the identical Metallic Corrugated Horn (MCH) antenna. The E-plane radiation characteristics of a SCH and MCH antennas are compared in the table.1.

I\ Z

*LE

(-1

Piq.3. Typical E and H-plane Radiation Patterns of the sa3 antenna a t 9.5 GHz. E-plane 8-plane

_____

From the experimental observations it is evident that the SCH is superior than the MCH antenna. This high gain, linearly polarised and low sidelobe horn antenna is a substitute for metallic corrugated horns. Using photolighographic technique the required precision of the grating parameters can be achieved and the laborious and time consuming job of cutting corrugations can be avoided. Conclusions: A simulated corrugated horn antenna having identical the radiation characteristics of a metallic corrugated horn antenna is designed and deve1oped.Thu.s a new technique for the fabrication of SCH has been proposed. This low cost, light weight feed horn is an effective substitute for metalic corrugated horn antennas with attractive features.

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Table ( 1 ) : Gmuarisar of radiatlon characrerlstjcs of K J i j H 1 ) & S M ( H 2 ) Antennas

30.8 37.2 25.8 33.8 10.5

11.5 26.8 30.0 20.6 21.2 9.8 11.3

44.0 3 9 . 0
30.6 38.7 35.5 35.8 16.5 28.8 16.3 12.0

24.0 43.5 24.0 CI.8

21.1 21.11 19.2 21.3 19.0 11.6 16.0 16.4 14.6 17.S

12.0 4 1 . 5
39.9 39.3 36.0 33.2

11.4 15.9 13.1 17.0

13.8 17.8

21.5 27.5
30.3 30.9 12.5 15.1

25.2 27.3
41.7 37.f

13.2 17.2
12.7 17.2

Acknowledgements: Stephen Rodrigues acknowledges the principal of St.Pauls Collegelfor all encouragements and P. Mohanan acknowledges CSIR, Govt.of. India, for financial assistance. References:

[I] R.E.Lawrie

& L.Peters Jr. "Modification of Horn Antennas for low Sidelobe Levels",IEEE Trans.Antennas & Propagat. Vol.AP-14,pp.605-610,Sept.1966.

[ 2 ] P.J.B.Clarricoats

& P.K.Saha,"Propagation & Radiation behaviour of Corrugated feed " ,Proce. Inst. Elec. Eng. Vo1.118.pp.1167-1186,Sept.1971.

[3] G.L.James,"TE and HE Mode converters for small angle Corrugated Horns",IEEE Trans-Antennas. Propagat. Vol. AP-30,pp.1057-1062,1982.
[ 4 ] C.Dragone,"A

Rectangular Horn of Four Corrugated Plates",IEEE Trans. Antennas. Propagat.,Vol.AP-33,pp.160 -164,Feb. 1985.

Strip Loaded Hybrid Mode [5] E.Lier & T.S.Pettersen,"The Feed Horn",ibid,AP-35,pp.l086-1089,Sept.l987. [6] K.A.Jose,C.K.Aanandan & K.G.Nair,"Low-backscattered TM 905 Polarised Strip Gratings",Electron.Lett.Vol.23~pp. 906,Aug.1987.