2011 Cross Strait Quad-Regional Radio Science and Wireless Technology Conference

A Novel2-18GHz TEM Double-Ridged Horn Antenna for Wideband

Applications
Hana Amjadi* and Farzad Tavakkol Hamedani**
*,** Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Semnan University
Semnan, Iran
*hana.amjadi@gmail.com
** farzadtavakkol@gmail.com
b5lruCl: In this paper we will present the new design of TEM
double-ridged horn antenna, resulting in a better VSWR and
improved gain of antenna. A cavit back and a new technique for
tapering the fared section of the TEM hor antenna are
introduced to improve the return loss and matching of the
impedance, respectively. By tapering the ridges of antenna both
laterally and longitudinally it is possible to extend the operating
frequency band while decreasing the size of antenna. The
proposed antenna is simulated with two commercially available
packages, namely Ansoft HFSS and CST microwave studio.
Stimulation results for the VSWR, radiation patterns, and gain of
the designed TEM horn antenna over the frequency band z-1o
GHz are presented
Keywords: TEM hom antenna, wideband application,
double-ridged, radiation patter, cavity back.
1. Introduction
The utilizing of wideband antennas continues to
increase. These antennas are commonly employed in wide
variety of applications, including electromagnetic
compatibility (EMC) testing, radar, detection systems, and
broad band communication systems.
Recently, transverse electromagnetic (TEM) hom
antenna has been used very successflly as ultra wideband
antennas for pulse radiation and ground penetrating radar
(GPR) applications [1] - [3].
The TEM hom antenna is an end-fre, travelling-wave
structure. These antennas have the advantages of
wideband, relatively easy construction, no dispersion,
high gain and directivity performance. However it has the
disadvantage of a large size. Several methods have been
proposed to improve the performance of the antenna and
reduce its size. Kanda suggested the idea of loading the
TEM hom antenna with resistors to enlarge the bandwidth
[4]. Also in [3], Shalger introduced a TEM hom antena
with resistive sheet to reduce the distortion. However,
loading the TEM hom with resistive material reduces its
effciency. An exponentially tapered TEM hom with
microstrip balun is designed in [5] to increase the
bandwith of the TEM hom antenna; however we can't use
this antenna in ultra wide band range.
It has been proved that the practical bandwidth of hom
antennas can be increased greatly by adding metallic
978-1-1211-9793-5/11/$26.00 2011 LLL 311
ridges to the waveguide and fared sections [6], [7].
Several methods have been used for tapering the fared
section of the hom antenna.
In this contribution, we introduce a new method for
tapering the ridges of the double-ridged hom antenna that
increases antenna performance. A TEM double ridged
transition including a 50n coaxial feed input and a cavity
back for 2-18 GHz fequency band is also presented.
Z. Description of the Antenna Structure
The confguration of the suggested TEM hom antenna
is illustrated in Fig. 1. Total length of the antenna is 75
mm with an aperture size of 50x50 mm
2
. To achieve a
single mode operation in the waveguide transition over the
2-18 GHz an aperture size of 14x20 mm
2
is required for
the waveguide. These parameters are optimized using
HFSS optimization to satisf the required characteristics.
The material for the conducting plates is aluminium with
1 mm thickness.
The antenna consists of fared section and TEM
double-ridged transition including a coaxial excitation.
The transition section is divided into two parts, a TEM
double-ridged waveguide and a cavity back located at the
back of the waveguide. The design process of each part is
investigated completely in the next sections.
TEM Double-Ridged
Coaxial Cable
Fig.l: Confguration of the proposed double-ridged hom antenna.
July 26-30, 2011
Z.1 Design of the Ridges in Flared Section
Tapering of the two identical ridges is the most
signifcant part in the double-ridged hom antenna design.
It is desired that the ridge height and width taper must be
such that the associated impedance taper is a smooth
transition fom the ridge (500) impedance to the
impedance of fee space (3770) [5].
In order to increase the impedance matching between
the double-ridged waveguide and the fee space, ridges
are tapered both laterally and longitudinally, it means that
height and width of ridges varies in fared part of hom
antenna. Tapering of the ridges in longitudinal plate (
axis) is based on exponential fnction and in lateral plate
(x axis), ridges are tapered linearly. The curvature of the
ridges along the longitudinal direction is determined by a
modifed exponential function as Equation (1):
Z(y) = 0.02y 'Zg ek.y,
(O ) I) (1)
i which y is the distance fom the double-ridged
waveguide aperture and l is the axial length (with
l = 60mm) of the antenna opening. The k is calculated as
follow [8]:
(2)
wherein Zg and Z is the characteristic impedance at the
waveguide and impedance of the hom at the aperture,
respectively. The following method is introduced to
determine the dimensions of the ridges:
The axial length of the hom opening (I) is divided into
eight sections. Now we have 8 smaller double-ridged
waveguides. Then, the height of each double-ridged
waveguides should be optimized by Ansof HFSS in such
a way that the corresponding characteristic impedance be
equal to Eq. (1). Afer obtaining the height of each part we
connect them together. It can be seen that at frst, the
height of ridge increases and then decreases (Fig.2).
Characteristic impedance of each section and detail design
dimensions of taped part are tabulated in Table I.
1= 60mm
Fig . 2: The designed antenna made from eight smaller waveguides
312
1A!LI. OL1AILCHARAC1LRIS1ICSOF 1AlLRLDIAR1
Distance Width 0
Waveguide
Characteristic between the
impedance the waveguide
number
(0)
ridges aperture
(mm) (mm)
U 3U.UU 1.UU b.UU
1 bV. Z.3Z 11.43
Z V.3 3.UU 1.Z
3 133.VU .3b Z3.34
4 1b3.V 1Z.4 Z.ZU
3 ZUZ.3 1V.4Z 33.3b
b Z4.b1 Zb.Z3 3.V
3UZ.4Z 3b.U3 44.bU
3b.3U 3U.UU 3U.UU
Z.Z Design of the Feed Section
TEM double-ridged transition is designed to match the
impedance of the hom section to the coaxial line. The
confguration of the feed section is shown in Fig. 3. The
antenna is excited by a SMA coaxial cable. As shown, the
shield of the coaxial probe is connected to the lower ridge
and its inner conductor is connected to the upper ridge.
In order to achieve low VSWR, the cavity back length,
the initial distance between ridges in the rectangular
waveguide and probe spacing fom the ridged edge should
be optimized. From the optimization process it was found
that the probe spacing fom the ridged edge affects the
gain of the antenna and shaping of the main lobe at high
fequencies. A lot of efforts have been made to identif
the appropriate position of the coaxial cable.
It is very common to use a cavity back to obtain a
much lower retur loss in the coaxial to double-ridged
waveguide transitions. It was found that the VSWR of the
antenna is critically dependent on the shape and
dimensions of the cavity back. Hence, we consider a
polygonal shaped cavity.
6mm
2.5 mm 6.5 mm


Imm
i
4.12 mm
Fig. 3: Confguration of the feed section
. Simulation Results
In this section simulation results of the introduced
antenna are presented. To confrm the results, the
corresponding antenna characteristics are verifed by
Ansof HFSS which is based on the fnite element method
and CST microwave studio which is based on the fnite
integral technique. Both show very close results
confrming that the simulated results are reasonably
accurate. Fig. 4 shows the VSWR of the proposed
antenna. As shown, the TEM hom antenna has the
fequency band of 2 to 18 GHz for VSWR< 2.0.
Z
J.b
J.4
I
HFSS /
__ __ - - - C51
r
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
J ' -
J
. ___
Z 4 b b J JZ J4
Frequency (GHz)
Jb
Fig. 4: VSWR of the designed antenna vs. fequency
Jb
Fig. 5 shows the simulated L and H-plan radiation
patters at 2, lO and 18 GHz .From this fgure it is seen
that, the back lobe and side lobe levels (SLL) are quite
low. Furthermore as the fequency grows, the patter
becomes more direction. The radiation patters of Fig. 5
are obtained through HFSS.
J
b
ii

L
Q
:
C
0 1
c
0

-J
C

-Z
.........
-Jb -J -b b
Angel (Oeg)
(a)
J Jb
343
Z
J
ii

L
-J
C
1
c
o
::
.!!
'
r -
-4
\
,

l
,
,I ,
,
I
,
',' ,
,
I
I
-b

II

c

C
1
c
o
::
.!!
'
C
a:
-Jb -J -b b J Jb
Angel (Oeg)
|)
-
-Jb -J -b b J Jb
Angel (Oeg)
|)
E-plane
H-plane
Fig. 5: E-plane and H-plane radiation patter of the atenna at: (a) 20Hz
(b) 10 OHz, (cl 180Hz
14 16
Frequency(GHz]
Fig .6: Total gain versus fequency for the suggested TEM double
ridged antenna
18
Fig. 6 presents the total gain of the designed TEM hom
[8]
antenna over the fequency range of 2 to 18 G Hz, and Fig.
7 shows the total gain of the TEM double-ridged hom
antenna that has the ridges tapering only longitudinally in
the fared part. As shown in these fgures, the gain of the
proposed antenna increases as fequency increases with a
maximum value more than 16 dB at 18GHz while the gain
for usual TEM double-ridged antenna has a peak value of
13 dB.
14
12
~ 10
m

c
`E
( 8
6
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Frequency(GHz)
Fig .7: Total gain ofTEM double-ridged hom antenna with fxed-width
ridges
+. Conclusion
In this paper, a new TEM double-ridged hom antenna
has been proposed for the 2-18G Hz fequency band. We
have shown that the new design for tapering the fared
part of TEM double-ridged hom antenna leads to a
signifcant size reduction of the device. Furtherore,
Stimulation results show that the designed antenna
provides good VSWR (less than 2), satisfactory far-feld
radiation characteristics and high gain over the practical
bandwidth. This antenna that covers the 2-18 G Hz can be
usefl for EMC testing and the other broadband
applications.
References
[I] K. Chang and S. Yang, "Design of a wideband TEM hom antenna"
IEEE Trns. AP-S, vol. 1, 229-232, June 2003
[2] A. S. Turk, "Ultra wideband TEM hom design for ground
penetrating impulse radar system," Microwave and Optical
Technolog Letters., vol. 41, No.5, 333-336, June 2004
[3] K. !. Shalger, . S. Smith, and 1. . Maloney, ''IEM hom
antenna for pulse radiation: An improved design," Microwave and
Optical Technolog letters., vol. 12, no 2, pp 86-90, June 1996
[4] M. Kanda, "The efects of resistive loading of "TEM" hors,"
IEEE Transaction on Electromagetic Compatibilit., vol. 24, no
2, pp 246-255, May 1982
[5] K.H. Chung, S.H. Pyun, S.Y. Chung and 1.H. Choi, "The design
of a wideband TEM hom atenna with a microstrip-type balun" ,
IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Interational
Symposium, pp. 1899-1902, June 2004
[6] K. !. Walton and V. C. Sundberg, "Broadband ridged hom
design," Microwave J, vol. 4, pp 96-101, Apr. 1964.
[7] S. B. Cohn, "Properties of ridged waveguide," Proc. H, vol. 35,
pp 778 - 783, Aug. 1947.
311
J. !. Kerr, "Short axial length broad-bad hors," lEE Trans
Antennas Propagate., vol. A-21, no. 5, pp. 710- 714, Sep. 1973.