CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION OF ANTENNA

Antennas are a very important component of communication systems. By definition, an antenna is a device used to transform an RF signal, travelling on a conductor, into an electromagnetic wave in free space. Antennas demonstrate a property known as reciprocity, which means that an antenna will maintain the same characteristics regardless if it is transmitting or receiving. Most antennas are resonant devices, which operate efficiently over a relatively narrow frequency band. An antenna must be tuned to the same frequency band of the radio system to which it is connected; otherwise the reception and the transmission will be impaired. When a signal is fed into an antenna, the antenna will emit radiation distributed in space in a certain way. A graphical representation of the relative distribution of the radiated power in space is called a radiation pattern. A current flowing in a wire of a length related to the RF produces an electromagnetic field. This field radiates from the wire and is set free in space. The principles of radiation of electromagnetic energy are based on two laws. (i) A moving electric field creates a magnetic (H) field. (ii) A moving magnetic field creates an electric (E) field.

1.2 CLASSIFICATION OF ANTENNAS

There are many different types of antenna. Some of them are listed below. (i) Wire antenna (a) Short dipole antenna (b) Dipole antenna (c) Monopole antenna (d) Folded dipole antenna (e) Small loop antenna (ii) Microstrip antenna (a) Rectangular Microstrip (Patch) antenna (b) Planner inverted-F antenna
1

(iii)

Reflector antenna (a) Corner reflector (b) Parabolic reflector (Dish antenna)

(iv)

Travelling antenna (a) Helical antenna (b) Yagi-Uda antenna

(v)

Aperture antenna (a) Slot antenna (b) Lens antenna (c) Cavity-backed slotted antenna (d) Slotted waveguide antenna (e) Horn antenna

(i)

INTRODUCTION TO WIRE ANTENNA

A dipole antenna is a straight electrical conductor measuring wavelength from end

to end and connected at the center to a radio-frequency (RF) feed line. This antenna, also called a doublet, is one of the simplest types of antenna, and constitutes the main RF radiating and receiving element in various sophisticated types of antennas. The dipole is inherently a balanced antenna, because it is bilaterally symmetrical. Ideally, a dipole antenna is fed with a balanced, parallel-wire RF transmission line. However, this type of line is not common. An unbalanced feed line, such as coaxial cable, can be used, but to ensure optimum RF current distribution on the antenna element and in the feed line, an RF transformer called a balun (contraction of the words "balanced" and "unbalanced") should be inserted in the system at the point where the feed line joins the antenna. For best performance, a dipole antenna should be more than wavelengths above the ground, the surface of a body of water, or other horizontal, conducting medium such as sheet metal roofing. The element should also be at least several wavelengths away from electrically conducting obstructions such as supporting towers, utility wires, guy wires, and other antennas. Dipole antennas can be oriented horizontally, vertically, or at a slant. The polarization of the electromagnetic field (EM) radiated by a dipole transmitting antenna corresponds to the orientation of the element. When the antenna is used to receive RF signals,
2

it is most sensitive to EM fields whose polarization is parallel to the orientation of the element. The RF current in a dipole is maximum at the center (the point where the feed line joins the element), and is minimum at the ends of the element. The RF voltage is maximum at the end and is minimum at the center.

(ii)

INTRODUCTION TO MICROSTRIP ANTENNA

A patch antenna is a wafer-like directional antenna suitable for covering single-floor

small offices, small stores and other indoor locations where access points cannot be placed centrally. Patch antennas produce hemispherical coverage, spreading away from the mount point at a width of 30 to 180 degrees. Patch antennas are also known as panel, flat panel or microstrip antennas. They are formed by overlaying two metallic plates, one larger than the other, with a dielectric sheet in the middle. This type of antenna is usually encased in white or black plastic, not only to protect the antenna, but also to make it easy to mount. Because they are flat, thin and lightweight, patch antennas are often hung on walls or ceilings where they remain visually unobtrusive and blend easily into the background.

(iii)

INTRODUCTION TO REFLECTOR ANTENNA

A dish antenna, also known simply as a dish, is common in microwave systems. This type of antenna can be used for satellite communication and broadcast reception, space communications, radio astronomy, and radar. A dish antenna consists of an active, or driven, element and a passive parabolic or spherical reflector. The driven element can be a dipole antenna or a horn antenna. If a horn is used, it is aimed back at the center of the reflecting dish. The reflector has a diameter of at least several wavelengths. As the wavelength increases (and the frequency decreases), the minimum required dish diameter becomes larger. When the dipole or horn is properly positioned and aimed, incoming electromagnetic bounce off the reflector and the energy converges on the driven element. If the horn or dipole is connected to a transmitter, the element emits electromagnetic waves that bounce off the reflector and propagate outward in a narrow beam. A dish antenna is usually operated with an unbalanced feed line. For satellite television reception, coaxial cable is used. In applications such as radar where a high-power signal is transmitted, a feed system is preferred.
3

(iv)

INTRODUCTION TO TRAVELLING ANTENNA

A helical antenna is a specialized antenna that emits and responds to electromagnetic fields with rotating (circular) polarization. These antennas are commonly used at earth-based stations in satellite communications systems. This type of antenna is designed for use with an unbalanced feed line such as coaxial. The center conductor of the cable is connected to the helical element, and the shield of the cable is connected to the reflector. To the casual observer, a helical antenna appears as one or more "springs" or helixes mounted against a flat reflecting screen. The length of the helical element is one wavelength or greater. If the helix or reflector is too small (the frequency is too low), the efficiency is severely degraded. Maximum radiation and response occur along the axis of the helix. Helical antennas are commonly connected together in so-called bays of two, four, or occasionally more elements with a common reflector. The entire assembly can be rotated in the horizontal (azimuth) and vertical (elevation) planes, so the system can be aimed toward a particular satellite. If the satellite is not in a geostationary orbit, the azimuth and elevation rotators can be operated by a computerized robot that is programmed to follow the course of the satellite across the sky. Yagi antenna, also known as a Yagi-Uda array or simply a Yagi, is a unidirectional antenna commonly used in communications when a frequency is above 10 MHz this type of antenna is popular among Amateur Radio and Citizens Band radio operators. It is used at some surface installations in satellite communications systems. A basic Yagi consists of two or three straight elements, each measuring approximately 1/2 electrical wavelengths. The antenna can be balanced or unbalanced. The Yagi is inherently a balanced antenna, but it can be fed with coaxial and a device called a balun at the point where the feed line joins the driven element. The driven element of a Yagi is the equivalent of a center-fed, half-wave dipole antenna. Parallel to the driven element, are straight rods or wires

called reflectors and directors. A reflector is placed behind the driven element and a director is placed in front of the driven element. A typical Yagi has one reflector and one or more directors. The antenna propagates electromagnetic field energy in the direction running from the driven element toward the director(s), and is most sensitive to incoming electromagnetic field energy in this same direction.
4

(v)

INTRODUCTION TO APERTURE ANTENNA

An aperture antenna contains some sort of opening through which electromagnetic

waves are transmitted or received. Examples of aperture antennas include slots, waveguides, horns, reflectors and lenses. The analysis of aperture antennas is typically quite different than the analysis of wire antennas. Rather than using the antenna current distribution to determine the radiated fields, the fields within the aperture are used to determine the antenna radiation patterns. Aperture antennas are commonly used in aircraft or spacecraft applications. The aperture can be mounted flush with the surface of the vehicle, and the opening can be covered with a dielectric which allows electromagnetic energy to pass through. A horn antenna is used for the transmission and reception of microwave signals. It derives its name from the characteristic flared appearance. The flared portion can be square, rectangular, or conical. The maximum radiation and response corresponds with the axis of the horn. In this respect, the antenna resembles an acoustic horn. It is usually fed with a waveguide. In order to function properly, a horn antenna must be a certain minimum size relative to the wavelength of the incoming or outgoing electromagnetic. Horn antennas are commonly used as the active element in a dish antenna. The horn is pointed toward the center of the dish reflector. The use of a horn, rather than a dipole antenna or any other type of antenna, at the focal point of the dish minimizes loss of energy (leakage) around the edges of the dish reflector. It also minimizes the response of the antenna to unwanted signals not in the favored direction of the dish. Horn antennas are used all by themselves in short-range radar systems, particularly those used by law-enforcement personnel to measure the speeds of approaching or retreating vehicles.

1.3 THESIS OUTLINE

The outline of this thesis is as follows.

Chapter 2: This chapter serves to review the important developments in the design and modeling of different horn antennas since its origin. Developments in corrugation for satellite and radar antenna, and recent development over the Gaussian profiled horn antenna.

Chapter 3: It presents the basic theory of waveguides, horn antenna and the corrugated horn antenna. Furthermore the concept of how to generate the hybrid mode by mixturing the TE 11 and TM11 mode, and the design calculation equations for the mode converter (corrugated horn antenna)

Chapter 4: This chapter describes the simulation software HFSS. Designing process of circular waveguide and the conical horn antenna using HFSS and results are presented in this chapter.

Chapter 5: This chapter describes the simulation software HFSS. Designing process of conical corrugated horn antenna using HFSS and results are presented in this chapter.

Chapter 6: This chapter is the conclusion of the project and also included the Future work for the Conical Corrugated Horn Antenna.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Waveguide is an excellent microwave transmission line, with low loss and predictable performance, usable at any frequency by choosing the proper dimensions. Circular corrugated horn antennas can be analyzed as the cascade of step-type discontinuities in waveguide. High-performance microwave communication, radar, remote-sensing and plasma heating systems often use an antenna horn as transmitter. This horn is a key component. It must match the microwave power from the source to the free space with minimum loss of energy and maximum efficiency. There are several designs for this horn, but for high performancesystems the best one is the corrugated horn. The corrugated wall presents the same boundary conditions to the electric and magnetic fields when it is capacitive (slots /4 to /2 deep). When excited in the transition between the smooth-wall waveguide and the corrugated-wall cone, the TE11 and TM11 waveguide modes, have equal phase velocities. The combination of these modes forms the hybrid mode HE11 when the mode phases are equal. When the modes are out of phase by 180, the hybrid mode is denoted EH11.

Figure 2.1 Conical corrugated horn antenna

There are three main reasons for the existence of corrugated horn antennas. Firstly, they exhibit radiation pattern symmetry, which offers the potential for producing reflector antennas with high gain and low spillover; secondly, they radiate with very low crosspolarisation, which is essential in dual polarisation systems and finally, they offer a wide bandwidth response. Now-a-days, in the age of the communications, horn antennas take a very important role in the development of the actual and future communications systems with high requirements in their radiations patterns. In fact, corrugated feeds are the best feeds ever
7

developed. A study on the principles of a pure mode horn will show why the corrugated horn is attractive for high-performance feeds. Pure mode horns are also known as single mode horns and with its characteristics in mind; a comprehensive comparison can be made between pure mode and corrugated horns.

2.2

HISTORY
In the 1960s, the idea of corrugated horns was first considered by Kay [1], Simons and

Kay

[2]

and Minnett and Thomas

[3], [4]

. This was due to the specific interest in achieving

[5]

symmetric radiation patterns so that low-sidelobe and high efficiency reflector antennas could be produced. It was also realized in the 1970s by Parini, Clarricoats, and Olver that

corrugated horns radiate very low levels of crosspolarisation, which is essential for dualpolarisation operation or frequency re-use. This is the situation where two signal channels are transmitted on orthogonal polarisations at the same frequency, and no interaction takes place between the two channels. Therefore the channel capacity is doubled for a single antenna.

2.3

RECENT TRENDS
However, the use of corrugated horns was initially limited. The relatively high mass

and volume were disadvantages that restricted applications. But the horns electrical advantages positively offset its mechanical disadvantages, and they were accepted and used as an ideal feed for a reflector in the 1980s. Different designs of the corrugated horn evolved and they are now a relatively mature antenna technology. Each system is different so the range of corrugated horn design keeps increasing. Ten to twenty years ago, corrugated horn antennas were restricted to be used in high performance applications, like being on board of satellites, earth station radio-telescope horns, antenna measurement chambers and very few more applications. They were restricted to those applications for two main reasons: difficulties in the design and difficulties in the manufacture process of a corrugated feed. At present, the communication systems require really high performance antennas; sidelobe and crosspolar levels should be reduced in the radiation pattern as well as the size of the antenna. Low crosspolar levels are inherent to the corrugated horn antenna technology and this parameter has been conveniently improved during the last decades with the use of corrugated feeds. But sidelobe level of corrugated horns has got stuck and no improvements have been made till the last five years. Probably,
8

the improvement in sidelobe level has not been really necessary up to now. The incredible quantity of new communication systems that interact between them has made necessary to reduce the mutual interferences through sidelobes. In fact, the major benefits from the extremely low sidelobe interference characteristics are to reduce both operational costs and also the susceptibility to jamming or eavesdropping in military and secure applications. The manufacture process for corrugated feeds has been improved during the last years due to the massive use of numerical milling machines and the improvement made in computer technology to control those machines. Additionally, sometimes to implement mm-wave and submm-wave corrugated horns, expensive electroforming techniques are needed, especially where thin corrugations, small size and precision are required. Electroforming techniques have the disadvantage of the necessity to manufacture a mandrel for each antenna that will be destroyed afterwards becoming a very expensive manufacture method. Regarding to the global dimensions of corrugated horns, we can observe that its radiation aperture is almost determined for a given directivity; although a horn antenna can be shortened in its length. Shorter antenna profiles are really the preferred ones for practically all applications, satellites launching reduction of weight, lighter posts for base station antennas, and additionally they should be as well easier and cheaper to manufacture. Now-a-days, likely global market applications for corrugated feeds are: compact parabola feeds, covert surveillance, secure communications, base station power saving, reduced interference. Guidelines for the design of rotationally symmetric circular waveguide mode converters are presented by Smain Amari and Jens Bornemann. The initial design shows very good performance which is further improved by using optimization techniques in connection with the coupled- integral-equations technique. The final design offers improved conversion efficiency and bandwidth and is verified by the CIET, MMT and HFSS. High quality corrugated feed horns at frequencies & 100 GHz are of great importance not only for industrial and telecommunications applications, but also for advanced fundamental scientific research (e.g. Letho, Tuovinen and Raisanen, 1990). Corrugated horns are used in fusion experiments as gaussian beam launchers and receivers for millimeter waves, both for plasma diagnostics and for low power testing of transmission lines in electron cyclotron heating experiments. Accurate observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) require low-loss, low sidelobe antennas in the microwave to sub-millimeter range. Low sidelobe levels (< 50 dB at large angles) are required for CMB applications, as well as

low return loss and insertion loss. Optimum designs for corrugated feed horns at high frequencies turn out to be critical for a reliable, accurate fabrication (e.g. Total et al., 1989). In optimized designs, the groove depth increases in the narrow throat section, where it should reach roughly /2 for optimal matching. 100 GHz the typical groove width is of the order of a fraction of a millimeter with depth more than 1 mm. Thus optimized feeds often cant be directly machined due to the lack of clearance for the cutting tool in the throat section. For best electrical performances, silver is the ideal material to be used due to its superior conductivity, although it may require passivation or coating. A first complete silver prototype has been produced at 120 150 GHz. Here we describe the feed design, the fabrication method and its measured performance. M. BERSANELLI have produced a prototype broadband, low-sidelobe conical corrugated feed horn suitable for measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation in the frequency band 120150 GHz. The antenna is a first prototype for the Low Frequency Instrument array in ESAs PLANCK mission, a space project dedicated to CMB anisotropy measurements in the 30 900 GHz range. We describe the fabrication method, based on silver electro-formation, and present the two dimensional antenna beam pattern measured at 140 GHz with a millimeter-wave automated scalar test range. The beam has good symmetry in the E and H planes with a far sidelobe level approaching 60 dB at angles 80. An upper limit to the return loss was measured to be 21 dB. Corrugated horns have been studied at large mainly for space applications. The work reported by Y. Bniguel, A. Berthon, K. Vant Klooster, L. Costes was intended to design a microwave source with less than 40 dB VSWR, less than 50 dB cross polarisation and low sidelobes over 20 % bandwidth. Additional constraints concern the beam width and the volume of the source. The results presented in this paper were obtained using the method of moment (MoM) technique based on the solution of integral equations, which is feasible because the symmetry of revolution allows reducing the problem to 1D integral equation. An evolutionary progranirnitzg (EP) algorithm is used by Vahraz Jamnejad, Ahmad Hoorfar, and Farzin Manshadi to optimize pattern of a corrugated circular horn subject to various constraints on return loss and antenna beam width and pattern circularity and low cross-polarization. The EP algorithm uses a Gaussian mutation operator. Examples on design synthesis of a 45 section corrugated horn, with a total of 90 optimization parameters, are

10

presented. The results show excellent and efficient optimization of the desired horn parameters The HE11 fundamental circular corrugated mode has been the ideal solution for a wide variety of applications where a high axial symmetry beam, low sidelobe levels and low crosspolar level were required. Nevertheless, a complex corrugated structure is needed, which transforms the fundamental smooth circular waveguide mode, TE11, to the fundamental circular corrugated waveguide HE11 mode. Usually, because nearly all of the implemented feeding systems are made in rectangular geometry, a rectangular to circular mode converter must be used. Thus, starting from a rectangular geometry if a mode with the same radiation characteristics as the circular corrugated waveguide HE11 mode could be generated, the rectangular to circular adapter could be eliminated. The paper by Prof. P.J.B. Clarricoats, Dr. R.F. Dubrovka and Prof. A.D. Olver described a novel compact corrugated horn with a wide bandwidth over which both the sidelobe level and crosspolarisation are low. The horn comprises three sections, an initial flare from the horn throat followed by two straight sections whose flare angles are chosen so that the final section leads to a plane aperture. By making an appropriate choice of the change in flare angle and the position of the change, the adverse influence of the higher order HE12 mode can be greatly reduced, when it is excited at a change in flare angle. In the Conclusion had shown that the mode structure of an Omni Guide fiber had many similarities with that of a hollow metallic waveguide. They explained why these similarities exist, and they presented a simple model that accounts for the differences. They identified the TE01 mode as the lowest-loss mode in the dielectric waveguide, as it was the case for the metal waveguide. A dual-band feed for the Deep Space Network (DSN) large array is described by D. J. Hoppe1 and H. Reilly1. The feed covers the 8- to 9-GHz and 30- to 40-GHz bands using a coaxial configuration. A saturated corrugated horn controls the radiation pattern in the low frequency band, and a dielectric rod is used as the radiator in the high-frequency band. The major requirements for the feed are described, and a summary of several possible feed configurations was presented. The bulk of the article covers the mechanical configuration of the feed, measured radiation patterns, and measured scattering parameters.

11

2.4 GPHA
Gaussian Profiled Horn Antennas (GPHAs) have demonstrated its feasibility as one of the best solutions by Jorge Teniente, Ramn Gonzalo and Carlos del-Ro. A corrugated gaussian horn antenna design with more than 40% bandwidth is proposed in this letter. The measured radiated far field patterns have a good agreement with the simulated ones. The measured results show a gaussian antenna with extremely wide bandwidth low sidelobes and low crosspolar levels. A parametric study is performed by A. A. Kishk and C.-S. Lim to the conical and Gaussian profiled horn antennas. Corrugations are added to these horns to further improve their radiation characteristics. The analyses are performed numerically using a body of revolution code, which uses the method of moments. The obtained numerical results are illustrated graphically to show the performance of the horns in terms of phase center, return loss, efficiency with parabolic reflector, directivity, and cross polarization of the horns. Results obtained conclude that the Gaussian profiled horns perform better than the existing conical horn antenna system. The Gaussian profiled horns provide higher efficiency, lower cross polarization, lower sidelobe levels as well as wider bandwidth. According to reference
[7]

, corrugated horn antennas are supposed to provide a nearly

perfect HE11 hybrid mode at its aperture while the contribution of any other hybrid modes as HE1n and EH1n (with n 2) should be reduced in order to obtain a low sidelobes and crosspolar levels. It is known that the addition of EH1n modes increases the crosspolar level of a corrugated horn antenna. Nevertheless, this paper shows that the idea of avoiding HE1n modes to reduce sidelobes is not true. In fact, it proved that GPHAs provide a HE 1n mode mixture at the aperture as function of the relation between aperture radius (R) and beam waist radius (0) of the fundamental gaussian beam to be generated.

Ranajit Dey, Vijay Kumar Singh, Soumyabrata Chakrabarty and Rajeev Jyoti presented the design and analysis of compact asymmetric sine-squared profile corrugated horn at 23 32 GHz. Using closed form equations, a code has been developed to compute the initial design dimensions of the horn. The computed initial design dimensions of the horn have been taken as input to another code based on mode matching technique which is more accurate. This mode matching technique based code has been used to further analyze and optimize the horn to find out its final design dimensions. This code does full wave modal
12

analysis of the horn and accurately predicts electrical performance of the horn such as return loss, modal power and co-polar and cross-polar radiation patterns of the horn. Using the codes, a horn has been analyzed fabricated and tested for its performance.

Figure 2.2 Corrugated Gaussian Profiled Horn Antenna, (corrugated GPHA)

The design of a dual frequency corrugated horn, working at S- and X-band simultaneously, was presented by Jonas Flodin, Per-Simon Kildal and Ahmed Kishk. The horn was designed to feed the 20 m radio telescope at the Onsala Space Observatory (a classical Cassegrain), via two feed reflectors
[8] [9]

and

The feed system is intended for

geodetic measurements using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). Large corrugated horns are nowadays mainly designed by using software based on mode matching. The Moment Method (MM) for Bodies of Revolution (BOR) has successfully been used to design small corrugated horns, see e.g. [10]. The design of large horn antennas using MM for BOR is difficult because of the large memory requirements. Internal resonances may also occur and give incorrect results. These resonances are difficult to distinguish from actual performance problems. However, the present paper shows that it is possible to identify the internal resonances by scanning the frequency and thereby it is possible to design even large horns, using the MM for BOR. The present design has been done by using the AKBOR code, which is based on [11]. The field matching technique was used for the modal analysis of a circular waveguide, which is corrugated to form discs between corrugations
[12]

. The dispersion

relation of the structure has been derived considering all the harmonics of the traveling waves in the corrugation-free region and the stationary waves in the region of corrugation. The results have been validated against that reported earlier and also using HFSS, for azimuthally
13

symmetric modes, with particular reference to the modes TE01, TE02, and TE03. The mode TE01 and the axial periodicity of discs proved to be the most effective in controlling the dispersion characteristics of the structure for wideband performance of a gyro- TWT millimeter-wave amplifier.

2.4.1 APPLICATIONS OF GPHA

During the development of this report, many corrugated GPHA have been observed. In fact, the number of designed corrugated GPHAs was above one hundred and the number of manufactured ones above ten. The first corrugated GPHAs manufactured by means of electroforming and they were two millimeter wave horn antennas, one was a direct corrugated GPHA and the other a symmetrical corrugated GPHA. The measured results were very nice, validating our numerical design code, year 1996. At the same time, an antenna for the German company Reinhold Mhleisen (RM), was designed to work at 170 GHz and was integrated in a complete system for the Japan Atomic Research Institute. In 1997, manufactured and measured a high directivity corrugated GPHA to emulate the radiation of the TJ-II gyrotron and test a quasi-optical transmission line at low power in the CIEMAT in Madrid In 1998, the design of the Hispasat 1C satellite horn antenna was performed. At the beginning of this year it was managed to persuade the engineers of CASA/EADS to use, for one of the three horns to be on board of Hispasat 1C satellite, a new technology based on corrugated GPHAs, this satellite was launched on February 2000. The nice performance of this antenna was the reason to be also selected to be on board of the new Hispasat 1D satellite launched in September 2002 with a slightly different frequency band. The next antenna design to be manufactured had to be two years later. In the year 2000 the two sub-millimeter horn antennas of very high directivity and very low sidelobe level for the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England was designed. They manufactured them by means of high precision electroforming and will be a part of ESA funded MARSCHALS airborne system.

14

CHAPTER 3: CONICAL CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA

In this chapter, I am trying to design the mode-converter which is producing the hybrid mode HE11 from the TE11 mode. For that there are basically two main parts. First designing the waveguide for generating the transverse electric mode and the other one is designing the corrugated horn antenna. In moreover, here additional conical horn antenna is also designed.

3.1 GENERATING THE WAVEGUIDE

A circular waveguide is a tubular, circular conductor. A plane wave propagating through a circular waveguide results in a transverse electric mode (TE) or Transverse magnetic mode (TM). Circular waveguides offer implementation advantages over rectangular waveguide in that installation is much simpler when forming runs for turns and offsets, particularly when large radii are involved, and the wind loading is less on a round cross-section, meaning towers do not need to be as robust. Manufacturing is generally simpler, too, since only one dimension (the radius) needs to be maintained. Applications where differential rotation is required, like a rotary joint for a radar antenna, absolutely require a circular cross-section, so even if rectangular waveguide is used for the primary routing, a transition to circular and then possibly back to rectangular is needed. Every waveguide has a definite cut-off frequency for each allowed mode. If the frequency of the impressed signal is above the cut-off frequency for a given mode, the electromagnetic energy can be transmitted through the guide for the particular mode without attenuation. Otherwise the electromagnetic energy with a frequency below the cut off frequency for that particular mode will be attenuated to a negligible value in a relatively short distance. The dominant mode in a particular guide is the mode having the lowest cut-off frequency.

15

The equation for calculating the cut-off frequency is, For the TEnp mode is,

Where

is

n 0 1 2
Table 3.1 values for

3.832 1.841 3.054

7.016 5.331 6.706

10.174 8.536 9.970

for calculation of cut-off frequency in TEnp mode

For the TMnp mode is,

Where n 0 1 2
Table 3.2 values for

is

2.405 3.832 5.135

5.502 7.016 8.417

8.654 10.174 11.620

for calculation of cut-off frequency in TMnp mode

Now here I am working for the X-band, which has a frequency range 8 GHz to the 12 GHz. So for the TE11 mode the cut-off frequency for the working frequency band X can be calculated as,

= 3.411 m

16

So the wavelength for the TE11 mode is 3.411 m. Which is further calculated for the frequency range is 8.79 GHz. Same way the cut-off frequency for the TM11 mode is 1.6388m. This is, 1.83 GHz, for frequency range.

3.1.1

TEmn MODE IN CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE,

Here, considering that the waves in a circular waveguide are propagating in

the positive z direction as shown in the figure. The TEnp modes in the circular waveguide are characterized by Ez = 0. This means that the z component of the magnetic field Hz must exist in the guide in order to have electromagnetic energy transmission.

Figure: 3.1 coordinate of circular waveguide

From the Maxwells and Helmholtz equation, The TEmn mode equation are expressed as,

17

Where

3.1.2

TMmn MODE IN CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE,

The TMmn modes in a circular waveguide are characterized by Hz = 0. However, the z

component of the electric field Ez must exist in order to have energy transmission in the guide. From the Maxwells and Helmholtz equation, The TMmn mode equation are expressed as,

Where

18

Now the calculation for the other parameters, The cut-off wave number of a mode,

Phase velocity,

Now here is the field pattern for the TE11 and the TM11 mode,

Figure: 3.2 field pattern for the TE11 and TM11 mode

3.2

HORN ANTENNA
Horns have a wide variety of uses, from small-aperture antennas to feed reflectors to

large-aperture antennas used by themselves as medium-gain antennas. Horns can be excited in any polarization or combination of polarizations. The purity of polarization possible and the unidirectional pattern make horns good laboratory standards and ideal reflector feeds. Horns also closely follow the characteristics predicted by simple theories.

Figure shows the general horn geometry. The input waveguide can be either rectangular or circular (elliptical). W is the width of a rectangular aperture, and a is the radius of a circular aperture. The distance from the junction of the projected sides to the aperture is

19

the slant radius R. The distance along the centreline from the aperture to the waveguide is the axial length. We derive the aperture field amplitude from the input waveguide mode while the phase distribution is approximately quadratic across the aperture.

Figure3.3 general geometry of horn antenna

Types of horn antenna

(a) Pyramidal (Rectangular) horn antenna (b) Sectoral horn antenna (c) Conical horn antenna (d) Corrugated horn antenna (e) Ridged horn antenna (f) Septum horn antenna (g) Aperture-limited horn antenna

20

Pyramidal and conical horn antenna

(a)

(b)

Figure: 3.4 (a) pyramidal horn antenna, (b) conical horn antenna

Corrugated horn antenna

Figure: 3.5 corrugated horn antenna

Sectoral horn antenna

Figure: 3.6 H-plane sectoral horn antenna

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3.2.1

CONICAL HORN ANTENNA

With a circular-aperture horn, we lose independent control of the beamwidths in the

principal planes. The circular waveguide can support any orientation of the electric field and thereby allows any polarization in the horn. The cone of the horn projects to a point in the feed waveguide where we assume a point source radiating to the aperture. The aperture phase is approximately quadratic. The waveguide fields are given by

Where J1 is the Bessel function, radius, and the cylindrical coordinate.

the radial component in the waveguide, (1.841) is the first zero of plane.

the

. Equation has

its maximum electric field directed along the

Figure: 3.7 general geometry of conical horn antenna

The directivity (in dB) of a conical horn, with an aperture efficiency of aperture circumference C, can be computed using,

and

22

Where a is the radius of the horn antenna at the aperture and

3.3 DESIGNING THE CORRUGATION HORN ANTENNA

3.3.1 CORRUGATION
The general concept of the corrugation is Shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges. Its an iris in the parallel form. And for the corrugated conical horn antenna, it defined as, A horn antenna that has a circular cross section and a series of equally spaced ridges protruding from otherwise straight sides.

3.3.2 WHY CORRUGATION NEEDED IN ANTENNA DESIGN?

The basic question is arises is the why the corrugation is needed into the designing the antenna? So the answer is,

First, it combines the both the modes, TE11 and TM11 mode, so we are getting the
hybrid mode, HE11 mode.

And smooth walled antennas have higher side lobes in the E-plane than in the Hplane.

Radiation pattern symmetry Low cross polarization Wide bandwidth response

Some years ago, corrugated horn antennas were restricted to be used in high performance applications, like being on board of satellites, earth station radio telescope horns, antenna measurement chambers and very few more applications. They were restricted to those applications for two main reasons: difficulties in the design and difficulties in the manufacture process of a corrugated feed. At present, the communication systems require really high performance antennas; sidelobe and crosspolar levels should be reduced in the radiation pattern as well as the size of
23

the antenna. Low crosspolar levels are inherent to the corrugated horn antenna technology and this parameter has been conveniently improved during the last decades with the use of corrugated feeds. But sidelobe level of corrugated horns has got stuck and no improvements have been made till the last five years. Probably, the improvement in sidelobe level has not been really necessary up to now. The incredible quantity of new communication systems that interact between them has made necessary to reduce the mutual interferences through sidelobes. In fact, the major benefits from the extremely low sidelobe interference characteristics are to reduce both operational costs and also the susceptibility to jamming or eavesdropping in military and secure applications.

3.3.3 CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA

Corrugated horns have become now-a-days the preferred choice of feed antenna for use in high restrictive applications. This is because of their superior radiation performance and in particular their high copolar pattern symmetry and low crosspolarisation.

Figure: 3.8 corrugations in antenna

24

Figure: 3.9 corrugated horn antenna

3.3.4 DESIGN PROCEDURE FOR THE CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA The operation principle of corrugated horns can be physically explained by considering the way in which the corrugated wall affects the field distribution inside a corrugated waveguide as shown in figure 3.10.

Figure 3.10 design of corrugated horn antenna

25

(1) Calculation of input Radius or throat radius of horn antenna (Rin) : This is the input radius of the corrugated horn antenna, which is shown in the figure 3.10. From this radius the source mouth is generated for the input of the TE 11 and for the TM11 modes. Rin or Rthroat = 0.39 * (2) Calculation of aperture radius of horn antenna (Rout): Here is the outer radius of the outer mouth of the corrugated horn antenna, which is shown in the figure 3.10. From this outer mouth of the antenna, the converted mode generated. So related to other parameters can be measured over here. Rout = 4.8 * or 5 * (3) Calculation of horn antenna length (L): Length of the corrugated horn antenna can be calculated as the length of the flare angle of the antenna from the inner radius to outer radius. The length of the horn antenna can be, L = 6.5 * to 8.5 * (4) Corrugation Depth (d) : The corrugation depth is the depth of the corrugation part of the horn antenna, which is important due to it, reduces the sidelobes in the radiation pattern.

Figure 3.11 design of corrugation

The corrugation depth is shown as in figure 3.11 and it is further calculated as, d = / 2 or / 4

26

(5) Period (P): Period (P) is the distance between two corrugations in the corrugated horn antenna. It has a variable distance between the ranges depending upon the wavelength. It defines the width of the corrugation depth part and the duty cycle part. For the period, which is showing in the above figure 3.11, variable range part is as below. P = / 3 or / 5 (6) Duty Cycle (W): Duty cycle is the thickness of the corrugation part in the horn antenna, which is shown as (W) in the above figure 3.11. The thickness or width of the corrugation can be calculated as, W = P / 2 or P / 3 W, the duty cycle or width of the corrugated horn antenna, is depending upon the period (P), because its the part of the period.

(7) Phase center (Pc): Here, defining the phase center as the point from which it appears that an antenna radiates spherical waves. Measurements show that the phase center is seldom a unique point in a plane, but depends on the pattern angle. The E- and Hplane phase centers will also be unequal in general. The phase center can be calculated as, Pc = 1.85 * or 3.42 * (8) Corrugation thickness (Cth): Corrugation thickness is the thickness of the material, which one is assigned to the horn antenna. Here silver material can be assigned. The corrugation thickness can be calculated as below. Cth = 0.02 * The corrugation thickness is important because the less thickly the material affects the skin effect problem. So the thickness from the calculation must be applied to the antenna.
27

Conductor, which is being used for designing Corrugated Horn antenna, is silver. And the medium inside the antenna is air.

3.3.5

FOR THE MONOMODE CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA For the designing of monomode corrugated horn antenna, there are two hyperbolas.

From that the slant edge of the corrugated horn antenna can be designed. These two hyperbolas can be defined as below,

3.3.6

FOR THE GAUSSIAN PROFILED HORN ANTENNA Now a days, working with a new type of corrugated horn antenna, consists on

generating the fundamental Gaussian beam directly from the TE11 mode. The equation that defines the profile is as below,

Where Wave number k= 2 * /

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3.4 HYBRID MODE

Transverse electric and magnetic modes (TEmn and TMmn) are usually well known in waveguide theory. On the other hand, hybrid modes (those modes which dont present pure transverse components along the waveguide) are not so well known. It is interesting to aid in the knowledge of corrugated horn antennas to deepen in the understanding of hybrid modes of a corrugated waveguide. A linear electric field for low cross polar level will be desirable but it cannot be obtained with smooth waveguides that only support pure transverse electric (TEmn) or a pure transversemagnetic (TMmn) modes. These modes have the aperture electric field lines curved. Therefore a multimode horn should be designed. In, a special horn design to obtain an appropriate mode mixture by the addition of TE11 and TM11 modes in a particular proportion and phase is presented, but its bandwidth is very narrow. The TE11 mode is as input power working in a circular mono-mode waveguide. This mode does not have a good radiation pattern and for large number of applications it cannot be used as radiation source. So, it is necessary to transform it into another mode more adequate to radiate. This mode conversion will take place by using the component that we present in this paper. This component use corrugated waveguide technology due to its highperformance, i.e. the high symmetry, wide bandwidth and robustness. HE11 mode is the fundamental mode of the corrugated waveguide. For the generating the HE11 mode there must be use of the both the modes which are transverse electric mode (TE11) and transverse magnetic mode (TM11) with the ratio of 85 % of TE11 mode and 15 % of TM11 mode. This is because while using only TE11 mode, the generated hybrid mode HE11 is not pure and less efficient while using this type of combination the produced or generated hybrid mode is 99.19 % efficient. For the balanced condition, i.e. supposing hybrid condition can be seen in the table 3.3.

TE Mode

TM mode

Table 3.3 mixture of TEmn and TMmn mode

29

The HE11 mode has highly desired radiation pattern characteristics for applications like satellite communications, radar, remote - sensing, etc, nevertheless, when the requirements are more stringent this mode is not good enough and we must look for other solution. This one corresponds to the fundamental Gaussian beam, which has outstanding features, such as being a free space mode, having high matching efficiency with a reflector, no side lobes, perfect symmetry. The hybrid modes HE11 present at the aperture of a circular waveguide perfectly linear electric field lines.

Figure 3.12 field pattern of HE11 mode

If we assume balanced hybrid condition, hybrid modes can be defined with the following simplified equations,

3.4.1 FOR HEmn MODE

The HEmn modes in a horn antenna are characterized by Hz and the Ez component is non zero. Both z components are present in the hybrid modes. From the Maxwells and Helmholtz equation, The HEmn mode equation are expressed as,

30

3.4.2 FOR EHmn MODE

Different different modes patterns of HEmn and EHmn are shown in figure.

Figure 3.13 field pattern of different modes of HE and EH mode

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CHAPTER 4: DESIGN IN HFSS

4.1 INTRODUCTION TO HFSS
HFSS is a high-performance full-wave electromagnetic (EM) field simulator for arbitrary 3D volumetric passive device modelling that takes advantage of the familiar Microsoft Windows graphical user interface. It integrates simulation, visualization, solid modelling, and automation in an easy-to-learn environment where solutions to your 3D EM problems are quickly and accurately obtained. Ansoft HFSS employs the Finite Element Method (FEM), adaptive meshing, and brilliant graphics to give you unparalleled performance and insight to all of your 3D EM problems. Ansoft HFSS can be used to calculate parameters such as S Parameters, Resonant Frequency, and Fields. The Ansoft HFSS Desktop provides an intuitive, easy-to-use interface for developing passive RF device models. Creating designs, involves the following: 1). Parametric Model Generation creating the geometry, boundaries and excitations 2). Analysis Setup defining solution setup and frequency sweeps 3). Results creating 2D reports and field plots 4). Solve Loop - the solution process is fully automated To understand how these processes co-exist, examine the illustration shown below.

Figure: 4.1 flow chart of the HFSS software 32

4.2

DESIGNING OF CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE IN HFSS

As per the design calculation, the circular waveguide is designed. Its transmitting medium is vacuum The boundary of circular waveguide is perfect E or perfect H field and which is the cylinder face. Then applying the excitation to the input and output ports. Input port, having a single mode and the output port, having with different number of ports.

This ports indicating the different modes of TE mode. This waveguide design as working with the 10 GHz frequency. So dimension must be chosen as its working frequency is above cut off frequency. Now analyze the waveguide port power or S-matrix for the all modes at 10 GHz frequency

Figure: 4.2 design of circular waveguide in HFSS

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4.2.1 Step: 1

DESIGN STEPS FOR CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE

As per design calculation, first takes the cylinder of radius 1.17 cm, which is calculated as the considered for frequency band X having the centre frequency 10 GHz can be passing through the waveguide and generate the transverse electric mode or also transverse magnetic mode. The material assigned to this cylinder is vacuum. Here the material is assigned vacuum because of the considering and generating the ideal waveguide. So no obstacles affects to the radiation in the waveguide by the other particles. Dimensions are as shown in figure 4.3.

Figure: 4.3 designed dimension of circular waveguide

Step: 2
Assign the boundary conditions for the waveguide. As per generating the transverse electric mode, the cylindrical surface of the cylinder, assigned with the perfect E boundary as shown in figure 4.4. Here the boundary is perfect E, so its conductivity is higher. So maximum power transmission can be possible and also getting the E field pattern at the end of the waveguide, which is the end circle part of the cylinder.

34

Figure: 4.4 assigning perfect E boundary to the surface

As per generating the transverse magnetic mode, the cylindrical surface of the cylinder, assigned with the perfect H boundary as shown in figure 4.5.

Figure: 4.5 assigning perfect H boundary to the surface

35

Step: 3
In HFSS, Assign the Excitation to the waveguide. Here first assign the input waveport at the starting circle of the cylinder, which is having an integrated line in the positive Z direction. From that the power source can be work. Here the input excitation waveport can be seen as in figure 4.6.

Figure: 4.6 assigning excitation, waveport at the input

At the output circle of the cylinder, there is also one waveport assigned. In this waveport there are number of modes can be added. Higher mode of TE can be generated. Like for as an example this number of modes can be 6. This output waveport is the output of the waveguide, which is the exit part of the radiation. So generated signals from the waveport 1 can be pass through the waveport 2.

Figure: 4.7 assigning excitation, waveport at the output 36

Step: 4
In HFSS, Assign the analysis part. In the analysis part set the solution frequency to the 10 GHz, centre frequency for the X band. Also adding the frequency sweep assign to the waveguide. Which is for x band it is for 8 GHz to the 12 GHz. And the frequency sweep increment is assigned. This frequency sweep is mainly 3 types. 1) Discrete type 2) Fast type 3) Interpolating type

Figure: 4.8 assigning solution frequency for analysis

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4.3 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF CIRCULAR WAVEGUIDE

Result: 1 Return Loss

Figure: 4.9 rectangular plots for return loss

Here is the return loss of the circular waveguide for the transverse electric mode. The return loss is almost below the -50 dB level, which is compared to good result. Because the reflected back power is minimum, so that the maximum power can be transmit through the output port. Therefore maximum radiation can be done to the end. The plot for the return loss which is frequency verses power in dB, here the frequency is in the range of 8 GHz to the 12 GHz. The plot is as shown in figure 4.9.

Result: 2 Dominant mode

For TE11 modes: The dominant mode of the transverse electric mode is TE11 mode. The field pattern is shown in figure 4.10. In this field pattern the radiation at the centre is almost linear and at the top and bottom side is curved.

38

Figure: 4.10 dominant mode TE11

After simulating, the circular waveguide through the HFSS software getting the result of field pattern of the dominant mode, at the input waveport, of the transverse electric mode TE11 mode. For TM10 modes:

Figure: 4.11 dominant mode TM10

The dominant mode of the transverse magnetic mode is TM10 mode. The field pattern is shown in figure 4.11.

39

Result: 3 Different modes at output waveport

For TEmn modes: The generated different modes of the transverse electric mode are shown as below.

Figure: 4.12 different modes pattern of TE

For TMmn modes: The generated different modes of the transverse magnetic mode are shown as below.

Figure: 4.13 different modes pattern of TM 40

Result: 4 E field and H field Plot for circular waveguide

The E field and the H field plot in the waveguide as shown in figure 4.15 to 4.19 for both the modes, transverse electric and transverse magnetic mode. This radiation is passing from one waveport to the other in positive y direction. For TE11 modes: For E field:

Figure: 4.14 cross section E field pattern of circular waveguide for TE

For H field:

Figure: 4.15 cross section H field pattern of circular waveguide for TE

41

For TM10 modes: For E field:

Figure: 4.16 cross section E field pattern of circular waveguide for TM

For H field:

Figure: 4.17 cross section H field pattern of circular waveguide for TM

42

Result: 4 S Matrixes

Figure: 4.18 S matrix of circular waveguide

Here as shown above the S matrix for the given frequency 10 GHz. Here we can see that the for the S11 parameter the reflected back power is very low, while in comparing the s parameter for S12 is approximately 0.95, which is compared to high. The total sum is 1, which can be the sum of all s parameters square. Here is the proof as below, Sum = (0.00078391)2 + (0.95141)2 + (0.30793)2 + (0.00068413)2 = 1.0 So the total sum, reflected and transmitted is getting total 1.

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4.3

DESIGNING OF CONICAL HORN ANTENNA IN HFSS

As per the design calculation, conical horn antenna is designed in HFSS. The

designed horn antenna is shown as below.

Figure: 4.19 design of conical horn antenna in HFSS

As shown in figure 4.19, based upon the specifications, the conical horn antenna is taken up for study and verifying results related to the antenna. The results of the tested conical horn antenna are as follows.

44

Result: 1 Return Loss

As shown in the figure the return loss of the conical horn antenna, at the center frequency 10 GHz, is -31.17dB. Here all over frequency band, X- band, having the return loss below -25 dB.

Figure: 4.20 return loss of conical horn antenna

Result: 2 Radiation Pattern

Figure: 4.21 radiation pattern of conical horn antenna 45

Result: 3 Gain Pattern

Figure: 4.22 gain pattern of conical horn antenna

Result: 4 VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio)

Figure: 4.23 VSWR

46

CHAPTER 5: CONICAL CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA DESIGN

5.1 DESIGN OF THE CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA IN MATLAB
The corrugated horn antenna design for its basic structure is implemented in MATLAB and its source code is mentioned here. This MATLAB code is for the basic two equations, which are illustrated in chap 3. These equations are as below.

For The Monomode Smooth Circular Waveguide,

This MATLAB code defines the antenna parameters like antenna inner and outer surfaces.

MATLAB CODE:
clc; clear all; close all; freq=input('Enter the valyu of the value of fequency in Ghz='); c=3*10^10; lamda=c/(freq*10^9); l=8*lamda;

47

display(l); rin=0.39*lamda; alpha=1.3; k=(2*pi/lamda); for z=0:0.5:l; eon=z/(alpha*k*rin*rin); r(2*z+1)=rin*sqrt(1+(eon.*eon)); end display(r); z2=0:0.5:l; subplot(2,1,1) plot(z2,r(2*z2+1),'--bs',z2,-r(2*z2+1),'--bs'); grid on; for z=0:0.5:(l/2) eon1=z/(alpha*k*rin*rin); f1(2*z+1)=rin*sqrt(1+(eon1.*eon1)); end display(f1) for p=1:25 c(p)=f1(p)+((lamda/2)-((p-1)*(((lamda/2)-(lamda/4))/48))); end for p=1:(l/2) m1(p)=f1(p+1)-f1(p); m2(p)=c(p+1)-c(p); end for z=(l/2):0.5:l eon2=((l)-z)/(alpha*k*rin*rin); b2=rin*sqrt(1+(eon2.*eon2)); eon3=(l/2)/(alpha*k*rin*rin); b3=rin*sqrt(1+(eon3.*eon3)); f2((2*z+1)-24)=(-b2)+(2*b3); end display(f2); for p=1:25 d(p)=f2(p)+((lamda/2)-(((p+24)-1)*0.015625)); end for p=1:24 n1(p)=f2(p+1)-f2(p); n2(p)=d(p+1)-d(p); end %% slop for f2(t) %% for f2(t) %% slop for f1(t) %% for f1(t) %% for r(t)

48

z1=1:l; z2=1:0.5:((l/2)+0.5); z3=((l/2)+0.5):0.5:l; z4=0:0.5:(l/2); z5=(l/2):0.5:l; z6=1:25; subplot(2,1,2); plot(0:0.5:(l/2),f1,l/2:0.5:l,f2,0:0.5:(l/2),-f1,l/2:0.5:l,f2,z4,c(z6),z4,c(z6),z5,d(z6),z5,-d(z6)); grid on;

The generated plot for the centre frequency 10 GHz is as below.

Figure: 5.1 basic structure of corrugated horn antenna

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5.2

DESIGNING OF CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA IN HFSS

As per the design calculation, the corrugated horn antenna is designed. Its transmitting medium is air. The material assigned is silver to the antenna so boundary of corrugated horn antenna is the conductivity of the silver material. Then applying the excitation to the input port.

Covering the whole antenna by the medium air. Because antenna practically worked in the media air and as using the software tool HFSS it is require to simulate the antenna, it must be solved inside the medium. Assigning the radiation boundary to the outer cylinder which is air. Because of the radiation pattern absorb the radiation signals which are generated from the antenna so that the radiation pattern can be identify. This antenna design as working with the 10 GHz frequency. So dimension must be chosen as its working frequency is above cut off frequency. Now analyze the field plot and field pattern at the mouth of the horn antenna.

Figure: 5.2 Design of corrugated horn antenna in HFSS 50

5.2.1

DESIGN CALCULATIONS FOR CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA

As per the following design equations the calculations are shown here.

Parameters
Input Radius of horn antenna (Rin) Horn Antenna length (L) Corrugation Depth (d) Period (P) Duty Cycle (w) Phase centre (Pc) Corrugation thickness (Cth)

Equations
0.39 * L = 6.5 * to 8.5 * / 2 or / 4 / 3 or / 5 P / 2 or P / 3 1.85 * 0.02 *

Expected Values
1.17 cm

19.5 to 25.5 cm

1.5 to 0.75 cm

1 to 0.6 cm

0.5 or 0.334 cm

5.55 cm

0.06 cm

Table 5.1 general design parameters for corrugated horn antenna

Now the design parameters are shown in Table 5.2.

Parameters
Input Radius of horn antenna (Rin) Horn Antenna length (L) Corrugation Depth (d) Period (P) Duty Cycle (w) Phase centre (Pc) Corrugation thickness (Cth)

Value
1.17 cm 24 Cm 1.5 Cm 1 Cm 0.5 Cm 5.55 Cm 0.06 Cm

Table 5.2 considered design parameters for corrugated horn antenna

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5.2.2 Step: 1

DESIGN STEPS FOR CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA

As per design calculations first take the polyline and generate the tooth for the corrugation antenna. Here considering the period (p) and the duty cycle (w). Period (p) = 1.0 cm Duty cycle (w) = 0.5 cm As per the MATLAB program the every point for the inner and outer surface can be implemented through polyline. This generated two hyperbolas, which has having the depth of / 2 to /4. At the starting edge the depth of the corrugation is / 2 and linearly detrimentally to at the end of the antenna, at the mouth, with depth of / 4. The basic structure designed in HFSS is as shown in figure 5.3.

Figure: 5.3 polyline design for corrugation in HFSS

This designed basic structure in HFSS, having only outer line. So for assigning the material cover the line. For this purpose, the starting and the end edge are connected through the polyline. Now perform the operation by the modeler tab on the toolbar. Apply coverline from the surface option. The generated coverline polyline structure is as shown below.

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Figure: 5.4 coverline the polyline for generate the conical horn antenna

Step: 2
Now from the step 1 the corrugation design is performed. Now for the design structure of corrugated horn antenna this polyline sweep around to the y axis for the 360, which is as shown in figure 5.5.

Figure: 5.5 sweep around the axis

After this sweep operation, the generated structure for the corrugated horn antenna is shown in figure 5.6.
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Figure: 5.6 generated corrugated horn antenna

Now assign the material, which is silver.

Step: 3
In HFSS, Assign the Excitation to the horn antenna. Here first draw one circle at origin with radius of outer surface of the input side of horn antenna and another circle at the mouth of the antenna having a radius of 9 cm, which is taken as an outer surface dimension. Now for assigning the waveport at the first circle, which is at origin having an integrated line in the positive z direction. The waveport assignment is shown figure 5.7.

Figure: 5.7 assigning waveport for the source

54

Step: 4
In HFSS, this antenna can simulate in any medium, so for that the air medium be generated, which has a radiation boundary. This boundary is assigned due to reason of generating the radiation pattern of the corrugated horn antenna. The radiation boundary has characteristics of absorbing the radiation signal which are generating from the antenna. This radiation boundary can be far field or near field.

Figure: 5.8 assigning radiation boundary

So the designed corrugated horn antenna is inside the cylinder, which is air.

Step: 5
Assign the analysis part. In the analysis part set the solution frequency to the 10 GHz, centre frequency for the X band. Also adding the frequency sweep assign to the corrugated horn antenna. For x- band it is 8 GHz to 12 GHz. And the frequency sweep increment is assigned. This frequency sweep is mainly of 3 types. 4) Discrete type 5) Fast type 6) Interpolating type
55

Here considering the discrete type frequency sweep with the increment of 0.125 GHz. Total 33 calculations can be done.

Figure: 5.9 solution frequency for analysis

And the frequency sweep is as below

Figure: 5.10 frequency sweep for the X-band 56

5.3

RESULT AND ANALYSIS OF CORRUGATED HORN ANTENNA

After designing the corrugated conical horn antenna in HFSS software as per the design

calculations, the equations and selected specifications, the corrugated conical horn antenna can be shown as below.

Figure: 5.11 calculated and generated corrugated horn antenna in HFSS After simulating the corrugated horn antenna in HFSS, the generated results are as follows.

57

Result: 1 Return Loss

Here is the return loss of the corrugated horn antenna is as above for the frequency range of 8 GHz to 12 GHz, x-band. Here this return loss is below -10 dB and at the solution frequency at 10 GHz it is -29.7818 dB. In the return loss of the corrugated horn antenna the generally loss is below -20 dB and it has a spikes in the band below -30 dB. The reflected back power is very low so that the maximum power can be transmit through the output port. Therefore maximum radiation can be done to the end.

Figure: 5.12 rectangular plot for return loss

The plot for the return loss which is frequency versus power in dB, (Frequency range 8 GHz - 12 GHz) is shown in figure 5.12.

Result: 2 Radiation Pattern

The radiation pattern of the corrugated horn antenna is as shown in figure 5.13. This radiation pattern is pencil beam, which is very important because this antenna is used for satellite communication and radar system, where sidelobes may cause the problem. Here The elevation pattern for =0 and =90 degrees would be important. Therefore the 2D and 3D patterns are as shown in figure 5.13 and 5.14.

58

Figure: 5.13 Radiation pattern of the horn antenna

Radiation Pattern in 3D

Figure: 5.14 Radiation pattern in 3D

59

Figure: 5.15 Radiation pattern in dB

Result: 3 Gain Pattern in dB

Here designed the corrugated horn antenna with calculation is so that the gain would be approximately 22 dB. The generated gain pattern as shown in figure 5.16 and its maximum value is 20.88 dB.

Figure: 5.16 Gain pattern in dB 60

Result: 4 VSWR (Voltage Standing Wave Ratio)

Figure: 5.17 VSWR

61

Result: 5 E field and H field Plot for corrugated horn antenna on mouth
At the mouth position of the corrugated horn antenna the E field and H field plot at 10 GHz frequency is shown in figure 5.18 and figure 5.19. This generating E and H field plot is as the Gaussian plot. So at the centre part the higher power generated and uniformly distributed to the aperture of the horn antenna.

E field Pattern at 10 GHz:

Figure: 5.18 Gaussian E field pattern on mouth of the antenna

H field Pattern at 10 GHz:

Figure: 5.19 Gaussian H field pattern on mouth of the antenna 62

Result: 6 E field and H field Plot for corrugated horn antenna for the cross sectional view
As the source waveport generate the signals they pass through the antenna in positive y direction. Here the cross sectional view for the E field and H field pattern is shown in figure 5.20 and 5.21. Here as we can see, the radiation passes through the corrugation. So that the reflected back signals from the corrugation, affects the radiation, which is most important in this project. Due to this reflection, the side lobes of the E field and H field may reduced and generated pencil beam radiation with high power, which has a higher directivity. And due to this reflection back signals; mode conversion also can be done.

E field Pattern:

Figure: 5.20 cross sectional view of E field pattern of the antenna

63

H field Pattern:

Figure: 5.21 cross sectional view of H field pattern of the antenna

64

Result: 7 E field and H field Distribution on mouth of the corrugated horn antenna E field distribution: Vector Plot:

Figure: 5.22 E field vector plot on mouth of the antenna

H field distribution: Vector Plot:

Figure: 5.23 H field vector plot on mouth of the antenna 65

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION
6.1 CONCLUSION
As per the design the circular waveguide and the corrugated conical horn antenna, the conclusion arises from that is, the circular waveguide is simulated properly with specific dimensions and the simulated results are suitable with the desired results. The circular waveguide have the very low return loss and different mode patterns can be studied from that. The E and H field pattern can also be studied for both the cross sectional view and at the output port. This field pattern can see by the animation command in the HFSS. Now, for the corrugated conical horn antenna, the lack of software resources and the lack of availability of desire hybrid mode in HFSS software, the result of the output mode, which is Hybrid mode, could not be seen. And in further there is not possible to applying both the TE mode and TM mode mixture in the source waveport and not possible any kind of mixture of different ratio. So for verifying the results I have considered the different parameters for the antenna. For that first verifying the return loss and it was below -30 db. So it can be considered. And it have good radiation pattern, which is pencil beam pattern with higher directivity and low side lobe levels. The most important parameter is verifying the Gaussian beam at the mouth of the corrugated horn antenna. Here from the simulated result the maximum power at the centre and the uniformly detrimentally to the aperture. So we can say that the desired output may be generated through this design of antenna. But this type of Gaussian beam radiation is achieved for whole band, for 8 GHZ to the 10 GHz. But from this design, which I have made, I got the result for 8 GHz, 9 GHz, 10 GHz, but not the proper for the 11 GHz and 12 GHz. So further calculations can make it solve by varying the variable values like length, period and duty cycle.

66

6.2 FUTURE WORK

Now a days, working with a new type of corrugated horn antenna, consists of generating the fundamental Gaussian beam directly from the TE11 mode. The equation that defines the profile is as follows,

But, now the difference is in value of, it has to be bigger, in this way; the horn antenna aperture velocity is slower, and so it can control the mode conversion between the TE11 and the HE11 mode, and also use the impedance adapter. With this type of horn antenna, the total Gaussian conversion efficiency will decrease a little bit. For verifying the result first, showing the far field radiation pattern and bandwidth studies are varying the corrugation period (p), Changing the corrugation duty cycle between 7p/8 and p/2 on an adapter length. The new Gaussian profiled horn antenna study is under process.

67