VOLUME NO. 1 (2014), ISSUE N O.

01 (AUGUST )

ISSN

-2349-7742

DESIGN & SIMULATION OF PYRAMIDAL HORN ANTENNA FOR NAVIGATION AND

SURVEILLANCE APPLICATIONS
Anushruti Jaiswal, Bhavna Vyas, Prof. K.Shambavi
SCHOOL OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING,
VIT UNIVERSITY, VELLORE-632014,
TAMILNADU, INDIA
ANUSHRUTI88JAISWAL@GMAIL.COM

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the design and simulation of Pyramidal horn antenna operating in X band for Navigation and Surveillance applications. The directivity of the
proposed antenna ranges from 15.18dBi to 18.55dBi and beamwidth ranges from 30.0deg to 20.9deg. The parametric characteristics of the antenna are almost
consistent in the operating band. The performance characteristics for this pyramidal horn antenna have been studied using CST software.

KEYWORDS
Surveillance, Pyramidal horn antenna, CST.

1. INTRODUCTION

yramidal horn antenna plays a vital role in navigation and surveillance applications. Surveillance systems are used as threat emitter systems, such as TES960 and TES-1210. The former consists of four pyramidal horn antennas and provides 4 bands of frequency coverage over a range of 900MHz to 9000MHz
and the latter consists of three log periodic antenna and one pyramidal horn antenna. Both systems are basically used in military where they are used in
OD green, desert tan and white. Surveillance system is also used in air traffic control (ATC), that not only detects and measures the position of aircraft i.e.
range and bearing, but also requests additional information from the aircraft itself such as its identity and altitude. Some other applications for pyramidal horn
antennas include terrestrial communication in satellite links, where they are used in line of sight (LOS) communication / transmission applications. Pyramidal
horns antennas vary widely in size, gain & have the capability of being designed & developed within wide range of frequencies ranging from MHz to THz.
Pyramidal horn basically constitutes of rectangular waveguide with pyramidal aperture. Pyramidal horns are combination of E-plane & H-plane sectoral horns as
aperture dimensions are greater than the waveguide dimensions. In pyramidal horn, the waveguide is flared along both the directions. Pyramidal feed horns
work by selecting the polarity of the waves to be received, which helps to attenuate unwanted signals from adjacent channels and transponders, and from other
communications satellites at nearby orbital positions. They are also used as feed in large radio astronomy, dish antennas & also used in satellite communication
& tracking. There are various advantages of using pyramidal horn antennas over other types of antennas such as they are lightweight as compared to many
other antennas providing similar gain.

2. DESIGN OF PYRAMIDAL HORN

Figure1 Geometry of pyramidal horn

Pyramidal Horn has been designed & simulated for frequency range of X-band which includes the range of navigation and surveillance antennas. Its design
consideration includes loft, waveguide and aperture dimensions.
Waveguide dimensions are a and b where
a= larger dimension of rectangular waveguide=22.86mm
b= smaller dimension of rectangular waveguide=10.16mm
Aperture dimensions are a1,b1 where
a1= dimension of rectangular aperture parallel to a=78.5mm
b1= dimension of rectangular aperture parallel to b=59.4mm.
The parameters which are calculated for construction of horn are R1, R2, Re,Rh and flare angle. When Pe and Ph are equal then the pyramidal antenna physically
exist.
R1=distance from apex to aperture of horn in E-plane horn=134.66mm
R2= distance from apex to aperture of horn in H-plane horn=157.50mm
Re=slant edge from apex to aperture in E-plane=
Rh=slant edge from apex to aperture in H-plane==

+
+

=137.837mm
)] =162.317mm

Pe=distance from mouth of waveguide to aperture in E-plane=

(b1-b)*[

- ] =111.576mm

Ph=distance from mouth of waveguide to aperture in H-plane=

(a1-a)*[
Flare angle=

- ] =111.576mm
=24.88.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORE RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Publihsed by Bal Krishan Bansal, Coordinator, # 1319, Sector-68 Mohali - 160 062, INDIA
A Bi-Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed/Juried) Open Access International e-Journal to be Included in the International Serial Directories

www.ijcrce.org

VOLUME NO. 1 (2014), ISSUE N O. 01 (AUGUST )

ISSN

-2349-7742

Directivity for pyramidal horn is given by

DP=
Where
DP= Directivity of Pyramidal Horn
DE= Directivity of E-Plane Sectoral Horn
DH= Directivity of H-Plane Sectoral Horn
a= larger dimension of rectangular waveguide
b= dimension of rectangular waveguide.
Cut-off frequency of waveguide in dominant mode

is

Fc=
Modelling of X-Band Pyramidal Horn antenna feed has been performed using advanced simulation software CST. CST MICROWAVE STUDIO is a specialized tool
for the fast and accurate 3D EM simulation of high frequency problems. It has transient solver for efficient calculation for loss-free and lossy structures. The
solver does a broadband calculation of S-parameters from one single calculation run by applying DFTs to time signals, Frequency domain solver with adaptive
sampling. The general purpose solver supports both, hexahedral and tetrahedral meshes. Besides the general purpose solver, the frequency domain solver also
contains two solvers being specialized on strongly resonant structures (hexahedral meshes only). The first of these solvers does only calculate S-parameters
whereas the second one also calculates fields which require some additional calculation time. The structure can be viewed either as a 3D model or as a
schematic. It can also calculate gain, angular beam width and more.

3 SIMULATION RESULTS
3. 1. S-ParameterS11 measurements by transient solver shows that antenna possess consistent performance over the frequency band of 7-13GHz.The cut-off frequency of the
waveguide in dominant mode
is 6.562GHz and it allows frequencies above the cut-off frequency. Hence, the return loss characteristics are shown from 7
to 13GHz. The following plot shows the S-parameters as a function of frequency.

Figure2 S parameter as a function of frequency

3.2. Radiation pattern

The designed pyramidal horn antenna is radiating consistently in X-band above the cut-off frequency of waveguide. There are no sudden changes in the
radiation pattern.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORE RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Publihsed by Bal Krishan Bansal, Coordinator, # 1319, Sector-68 Mohali - 160 062, INDIA
A Bi-Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed/Juried) Open Access International e-Journal to be Included in the International Serial Directories

www.ijcrce.org

VOLUME NO. 1 (2014), ISSUE N O. 01 (AUGUST )

ISSN

-2349-7742

Figure3 Radiation pattern for X-band

Figure4 Structure of pyramidal horn with radiation pattern

3.2. Radiation pattern

The surface current ranges from 6.00405 A/m to 4.48096 A/m in range of X-band.

Figure5 Current Distribution for X-band

Table1 Parameters of pyramidal horn

s.no
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Frequency(GHz)
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Directivity(dBi)
14.07
15.18
16.14
16.90
17.79
18.55
18.89

Beamwidth(degree)
37.5
30.0
29.0
25.8
21.8
20.9
20.0

From the above table we infer that the directivity of the pyramidal horn antenna is increasing and beamwidth is decreasing with increase in frequency.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORE RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Publihsed by Bal Krishan Bansal, Coordinator, # 1319, Sector-68 Mohali - 160 062, INDIA
A Bi-Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed/Juried) Open Access International e-Journal to be Included in the International Serial Directories

www.ijcrce.org

VOLUME NO. 1 (2014), ISSUE N O. 01 (AUGUST )

ISSN

-2349-7742

4 CONCLUSION
Design and simulation of pyramidal horn antenna in X-band for navigation and surveillance applications was studied. Antenna shows consistent performance
over X-band in which directivity ranges from 15.18dBi to 18.55dBi and beamwidth ranges from 30.0deg to 20.9deg.There are no abrupt changes in the
performance parameters of pyramidal horn antenna and it reflects almost similar performance in the range of X-band. Thus, the designed antenna can be used
for Navigation and Surveillance applications.

REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Constantine A. Balanis(2005), Antenna Theory Analysis & Design, 3rd ed.,John Wiley & Sons.
Syed Azhar Hasan.Design, Simulation, Development & Testing of Wideband High Performance Pyramidal Horn Feed for Terrestrial Microwave
(LOS) Communication in Mobile & Wireless Applications.
E. V. Jull(1970). Finite-range gain of sectoral and Pyramidal horn
Konstantinos B. Baltzis,(2010).Calculation of the Half-Power Beamwidths of Pyramidal Horns With Arbitrary Gain and Typical Aperture Phase
Error
TES-960 and TES-1210 from htpp://www.ara-inc.com
CST help/Instruction manual.

ANALYSIS TOOL USED

1.
CST Software.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORE RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Publihsed by Bal Krishan Bansal, Coordinator, # 1319, Sector-68 Mohali - 160 062, INDIA
A Bi-Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed (Refereed/Juried) Open Access International e-Journal to be Included in the International Serial Directories

www.ijcrce.org