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INTERPRETATION OF DATA

The primary objective of the experiment was to know how to design a horn antenna and to

observe its characteristics such as radiation pattern, gain, directivity and power density. Pyramidal

horn antenna was constructed using AN-SOF simulation tool. It was also determined upon

studying that there are also other types of horn antenna aside from pyramidal horn antenna such as

Sectoral E-Plane horn, conical horn and sectoral H-plane horn. Primarily, a horn antenna is used

as a horn feed in a parabolic reflector. The horn antenna is simply a flared piece of waveguide

material that is placed at the focus and radiates a directional pattern towards the parabolic reflector.

It was noted that when a propagating magnetic field reaches the mouth of the horn antenna, it

continues to propagate in the same general direction except that it spreads laterally and the

wavefront becomes spherical in accordance with the Huygen’s principle. Furthermore, the primary

purpose of having using a horn antenna is to provide impedance matching between the waveguide

feeder and the free space and it also helps to suppress signals travelling via unwanted modes in the

waveguide from being radiated. In addition, it also provides a significant level of directivity and

gain. The figure below shows how pyramidal horn antenna with rectangular waveguide

constructed in AN-SOF simulation tool at an operating frequency of 7.5 GHz.

Figure 1: Design of the Horn Antenna in different viewpoints


As it was noted, horn antenna provides a significant level of directivity and gain. The figure

below shows the radiation pattern of a pyramidal horn antenna with rectangular waveguide

simulated in AN-SOF simulation tool. The figure below also shows the directivity, gain and power

density of the radiation pattern of the pyramidal horn antenna. It was noted that for greater levels

of gain, the horn antenna should have a large aperture meaning that the area of opening as shown

in the lower right of the figure should be large to obtain higher gain. Furthermore, the length of

the horn is also a factor in providing higher gain and directivity. It was noted that longer horns

provide higher gain and better directivity, but they are more difficult to mount and to work with.

In addition, a typical horn is usually 2 to 15 at the operating frequency.

Figure 2: Radiation Pattern of the Horn Antenna at 7.5 GHz operating frequency in different
viewpoints
It was also discovered that the flare angle can also affect the gain and directivity. Typical

flare angle can vary from about 20 to 60 and by decreasing the length can increase the flare

angle. Therefore, the flare angle or the length of the horn can be adjusted to achieve the desired

gain and directivity. In addition, the directivity of an antenna is measured in terms of beam width.

Typically, horn antennas have a beam width angle ranging about 10 to 60. The constructed

pyramidal horn antenna has a beam width of 70 degrees at the horizontal plot and 55 degrees at

the vertical plot. This only means that at these angles, there is a 3-dB down point where the power

is at 70.7 percent of the maximum. The maximum point of radiation, gain, and power density

happens at 90 degrees. Half-power of the constructed pyramidal horn antenna happens at 55 and

125 degree of a horizontal plot and 62.5 and 117.5 degree of a vertical plot. Note that the smaller

the beam width the more directional is the antenna.

Figure 3: Horizontal (Azimuth – left side) and Vertical (Elevation – right side) plot of the
radiation pattern of the horn antenna at operating frequency of 7.5 GHz
The figure below shows the current distribution of a pyramidal horn antenna at 7.5 GHz

operating frequency. It was noted that electric field distribution inside the horn antenna contributes

a major role in the propagation of microwaves. Based on the figure, the amplitude of the current

distribution of the horn antenna alongside with the rectangular waveguide is small based from the

color gradient and a significant higher current density at the feed line.

Figure 4: Amplitude (upper left), Phase (upper right), Real part (lower left), and Imaginary part
(lower right) of the current distribution at 7.5 GHz operating frequency of a horn antenna
INSIGHTS AND LEARNINGS

1. Fundamentals and basic principles of Horn Antenna

Primarily, in some microwave systems, waveguides are preferred because of their

low loss and they are inefficient radiators if simply left open at the end. Furthermore, the

problem of using waveguide as a radiator is that it provides a poor impedance match with

free space and the mismatch will result in standing waves and reflected power and the result

will be a tremendous power loss of the radiated signal. The problem can be compensated

by using horn antenna to offset the mismatch by flaring the end of the waveguide.

Furthermore, it was noted that the longer and more gradual the flair, the better the

impedance match and the lower the loss [2].

Moving on, it was learned that there are different kinds of horn antenna that can be

used to flare the end of the waveguide. For example, sectoral horn antenna is used to flare

the waveguide in only one dimension. Flaring both dimensions uses a pyramidal horn

antenna [2]. Typically, horn antenna is used as the feed mechanism for a parabolic dish,

therefore the flare angle and the length are adjusted for optimum illumination of the

reflector [1]. It was noted that the simplest feed mechanism is where the mouth of the

conical horn is located at the focal point of the reflector [1]. Other types of horn antenna

include E-plane and H-plane sectoral horns, conical horns and corrugated horns [3].

It was noted that the radiation characteristics of an antenna are dependent on the

current distribution on the antenna surface or the aperture and the input match, on how the

transition from the input wave guide to the aperture is constructed [3]. Furthermore, given

an aperture size and the wave guide size, the apex angle of the pyramid determines the
length of the horn, for a good input match the apex angle must be small (large length). The

aperture size and the field distribution determine the pattern characteristics [3].

Lastly, horn antennas are essentially nonresonant or aperiodic which means that

horn antennas can operate over a wide frequency range. Furthermore, the bandwidth of a

typical horn antenna is approximately 10 percent of the operating frequency [2].

2. Gain, Directivity, Aperture, Range Distance Measurement of Horn Antenna

By simulating horn antenna, the hole size of the wire structure is about one-tenth

of the wavelength (0.1 lambda) in order to model a continuous metallic surface. The

radiation pattern of a horn antenna shows a main lobe pointing towards the horn axis (y-

axis). Furthermore, Horn antenna have an excellent gain and directivity. It was noted that

the longer the horn, the greater its gain and directivity. Moving on, it was identified that

the gain and directivity of a horn antenna are a direct function of horn length, aperture area,

and the flare angle. The length of a typical horn antenna is usually 2 to 15 at the operating

frequency. Longer horns are more difficult to mount but can provide a higher gain and

better directivity. Moving on, the aperture is the area of the rectangle formed by the opening

of the horn and it is the product of the height and width of the horn. It was noted that the

greater the area of aperture, the higher the gain and directivity will be obtained.

Furthermore, flare angle also affects the gain and directivity and a typical flare angles can

vary from about 20 to 60. By increasing the flare angle increases the aperture area, and

for a give aperture are, decreasing the length increases the flare angle, therefore it can be

said that these dimensions are interrelated to each other. The directivity of the antenna is

measured in terms of beam width in which the angle formed by extending lines from the
center of the antenna response curve to the 3-dB down points. It was noted that a typical

horn antenna has a beam angle about 10 to 60 range. The horizontal beam width B of a

80
pyramidal horn antenna can be computed using the equation 𝐵 = where w is the horn
𝑤/

width and  is the wavelength of the operating frequency. The gain of a pyramidal horn

antenna can also be computed from its dimensions. The expression to approximate the
𝐾𝐴
power gain of a pyramidal horn antenna is 𝐺 = 4𝜋 where A is the aperture of the horn,
2

 is the wavelength and K is the constant derived from how uniformly the phase an

amplitude of electromagnetic field are distributed across aperture [2].

3. Performance of Horn Antenna

Horn antennas have some major advantages such as having a small minor lobe, the

impedance matching is good, horn antenna has a greater directivity, it has a narrower beam

width and standing waves can be avoided. It should be noted that the flare angle should be

designed appropriately because it will decide the gain and directivity of the antenna.

Furthermore, it should be noted when designing a horn antenna is that the flare angle and

length of the flare should not be very small to achieve maximum gain and directivity.

Moving on, some of the major application of the horn antenna is that it is used in

astronomical studies and used in microwave application especially for impedance matching

between the waveguide feeder and the free space [2]. Moreover, horn antennas have a high

gain, wideband, low loss and have a high power capability but one of its primary

disadvantage is its large electrical length when high gain is required therefore some

researchers designed horn antennas in array to keep high gain while reducing the length of

the antenna [4]. Horn antennas are used as a high-gain radiator and the gain of the horn
antenna is function to its physical size, an a high-gain horn antenna will result in a heavy

and impractical long horn antenna especially when operating at low frequencies, but it was

noted that by increasing the flare angle to reduce the horn antenna length will result in a

large quadratic phase error in the horn aperture that makes the beamwidth wider but this

can be resolved by using a dielectric lens that is positioned in the horn aperture to increase

the flare angle and reduce the axial length of the horn [5].
REFERENCES

[1] W. Tomasi, Electronic Communications Systems Fundamentals Through Advanced.

Pearson Education, 2000.

[2] Louis Frenzel. 2016. Principles of Electronic Communication Systems, Student Edition

(4th. ed.). McGraw-Hill, Inc., USA.

[3] A.R. Harish, M. Sachidananda, Antennas and Wave propagation. Oxford University

Press, 2007.S

[4] E. Levine and H. Matzner, "A relatively flat dual-horn antenna," 2017 IEEE International

Conference on Microwaves, Antennas, Communications and Electronic Systems

(COMCAS), Tel-Aviv, 2017, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/COMCAS.2017.8244793.

[5] M. K. T. Al-Nuaimi, W. Hong and Y. Zhang, "Design of High-Directivity Compact-Size

Conical Horn Lens Antenna," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol.

13, pp. 467-470, 2014, doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2013.2297519.

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