2000 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
Volume 48 Number 8, August 2000

Table of Contents for this issue

Complete paper in PDF format

On Primary Incident Wave Models for Pyramidal Horn Gain Calculations

Gordon Mayhew-Ridgers, Johann W. Odendaal, Member, IEEE and Johan Joubert Member, IEEE

Page 1246.

Abstract:

A few widely used primary incident wave models for pyramidal horn antenna analysis are compared on the basis of gain calculations. The analysis is based on edge-wave diffraction theory, as presented in a recent publication, with some modifications made to the underlying theory. It is shown that these models agree well for high-gain horns with small flare angles,but that the differences are more profound for lower gain horns, where the flare angles are larger. The accuracy of the various models are studied by comparing the results to actual measurements. The respective effects of amplitude and phase variation in the primary incident wave are also illustrated.

References

  1. A. Schelkunoff and H. T. Friis, Antennas: Theory and Practice, New York: Wiley, 1952, pp.  515-535. 
  2. L. Stutzman and G. A. Thiele, Antenna Theory and Design, New York: Wiley, 1981, pp.  397-415. 
  3. C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 2nd ed.   New York: Wiley, 1997, pp.  651-695. 
  4. F. Nye and W. Liang, "Theory and measurement of the field of a pyramidal horn", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 44, pp.  1488-1498, Nov.  1996.
  5. J. Maybell and P. S. Simon, "Pyramidal horn gain calculation with improved accuracy", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 41, pp.  884-889,  July  1993.
  6. C. Hawkins and F. Thompson, "Modifications to the theory of waveguide horns", Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng. Microwave Antennas Propagat., vol. 140, pp.  381-386, Oct.  1993.
  7. K. Liu, C. A. Balanis, C. R. Birtcher and G. C. Barber, "Analysis of pyramidal horn antennas using moment methods", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 41, pp.  1379-1389,  Oct.  1993.
  8. E. V. Jull, "Errors in the predicted gain of pyramidal horns", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-21, pp.  25-31, Jan.  1973.
  9. J. F. Nye, G. Hygate and W. Liang, "Energy streamlines: A way of understanding how horns radiate backward", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 42, pp.  1250-1256,  Sept.  1994.
  10. S. Yu, R. C. Rudduck and L. Peters Jr., "Comprehensive analysis for E -plane of horn antennas by edge diffraction theory", IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-14, pp.  138-149, Mar.  1966.
  11. G. Mayhew-Ridgers, "Accuracy of the gain-transfer method for aperture antenna gain measurements", M.Eng. thesis, Univ. Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa, 1998.
  12. M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 6th ed.   New York: Pergamon, 1989, pp.  556-592. 
  13. J. W. Odendaal and C. W. I. Pistorius, "A method to measure the aperture field and experimentally determine the near-field phase center of a horn antenna", IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 42, pp.  51-53, Feb.  1993.
  14. J. B. Keller, "Geometrical theory of diffraction", J. Opt. Soc. Amer., vol. 52, pp.  116-130, 1962.