Elliptically Shaped Quad-Ridge Horn Antennas as Feed for a Reflector

Abstract

Abstract-Quad ridge horn antennas of various geometries are considered as possible candidates for a wideband reflector antenna feed. It is demonstrated that shaping the sidewalls of the ridge horns significantly improves the radiation characteristics of the horns. The conical quad ridge horn with an elliptically shaped sidewall shows the most promise as a wideband reflector antenna feed. The radiation patterns are rotationally symmetric and the 10 dB beamwidth is reasonably constant over a wide frequency range.Index Terms-Radio astronomy, horn antenna, reflector antenna, wideband, dual polarization.

Ultrawideband square and circular quad-ridge horns with near-constant beamwidth

“…A similar analysis of ridged horns with cross-sections varying along the axis of the horn is missing from the literature. As such, design of microwave components employing flared, ridged waveguides, such as quad-ridge ortho-mode transducers (OMTs) [6], [7], commercial dual-ridged horns [8], and quad-ridge horns as reported in [9]- [12], relies heavily on numerical analysis. Our research has also been driven by numerical simulations; however, this process is facilitated by an automated software setup in which MATLAB [13] and CST Microwave Studio [14] communicate to generate horn geometries, assess simulation results and produce the next optimization iteration.…”

Quad-Ridge Horn Antenna With Elliptically Shaped Sidewalls

“…Applying elliptically shaped sidewalls to a quad-ridge horn antenna can result in a much larger bandwidth while the radiation pattern is improved by the addition of the shaped sidewalls as has recently been demonstrated [2,9].…”

“…Existing wide band reflector antenna feeds are incapable of achieving the required sensitivity over the bandwidth of the SKA. New wide band feeds are thus being developed to attain high sensitivity over wide bandwidths [2]. Quad-ridge horn antennas can obtain large bandwidths and are dual polarized [3,4], however, as an aperture type antenna the expected variation of the beamwidth of a quadridge horn is inversely proportional to the aperture size in wavelengths [5,6].…”

A novel two‐step flare wide band horn antenna

“…Moreover, they have not discussed about location of the phase center of this kind of antennas. For applications which need two polarizations, quad ridged horn antennas have been suggested …”

“…For applications which need two polarizations, quad ridged horn antennas have been suggested. 17,19 Location of the phase center of the antennas in the base line of the interferometry array is very critical issue for the accuracy of the direction finding systems. 20 In some applications such as amplitude direction finding methods for that the accuracy of the system does not depend on the polarization, similarity of 10 dB beam width of amplitude pattern for two polarizations is necessary.…”