Due to the rapid development of technology in communication, there is an increasing need for antenna systems with good performance. As receiving and transmitting radio wave equipment, the antenna is a critical component of the whole system. The reflective surface antenna(parabolic dish antenna) has unique advantages, and it’s widely used in communication, radar, radio astronomy, etc. As the feed source or direct radiator of the whole reflector antenna, the horn antenna directly affects the performance of the entire reflector system.

When choosing a horn antenna, you need to focus on a couple of parameters based on your application. It’s included but not limited to frequency ranges, gain, polarization as well as the half-power beamwidth, etc.

Horn Antenna Frequency Ranges

Currently, most commercial fixed wireless services use C-band. With the increasing variety of communication services, Ku/Ka-band is gaining more and more attention after being fully developed by reducing the track spacing and adopting orthogonal polarization multiplexing and spatial multiplexing. In terms of bandwidth, Ku/Ka-band is much larger than C-band, especially Ka-band, so it is the primary band for the new generation of high-capacity communication systems.

Late in World War II, Germany first used a radar that operated at a wavelength of only 1.5 cm, called K-band radar. K is the initial of the German word Kurz (short). Unfortunately, the Germans’ frequency happened to be very easily absorbed by water vapor, making it unusable in foggy or rainy weather. Radars after World War II usually used Ku (K-under) band or Ka (K-above) band to avoid the water vapor absorption peak in the K band. The specific band division is shown in the table below:

Ku/Ka-band communication system can meet the high-capacity requirements of communication and can improve the system’s anti-interference, confidentiality, anti-destructiveness, flexibility, etc.

cURL Too many subrequests.

cURL Too many subrequests.

cURL Too many subrequests.

cURL Too many subrequests.cURL Too many subrequests.cURL Too many subrequests.

cURL Too many subrequests.

• cURL Too many subrequests.

cURL Too many subrequests.

• cURL Too many subrequests.

cURL Too many subrequests.

• cURL Too many subrequests.

A dual-polarized antenna is an essential subsystem of dual-polarization radar or radio. The high efficiency polarization usually requires the antenna to have a low cross-polarization level and high polarization isolation level. The dual-polarization antenna array has two categories: waveguide dual-polarization and microstrip dual polarization. The waveguide dual polarity antenna array is more widely used at C band(4-8GHz) while the microstrip one is between Ku band and Ka band(18-40GHz).

Horn Antenna Radiation Patterns

The radiation pattern of horn antennas is a graphical representation of radiation strength and function direction. The field strength and sometimes radiation intensity goes into measuring the power of the radiation. For finding the radiation pattern;

• The antenna should find a location at the spherical polar coordinates system’s origin point.
• Different strengths at different field points on the imaginary concentric spherical surface.

Horn Antenna Beamwidth

The half-power beamwidth of a horn antenna has something significant with the horn antenna type, frequency range and gain. The higher the gain, the narrower the beamwidth and vice versa.

Horn Antenna Connector

N-Female : It’s a threaded N-type plug on one end and a pin on the other. The N-female connector suits the horn antennas with operating frequency under the Ku band( below 18GHz). It’s mainly used for standard gain horn antennas and dual-polarization horn antennas.

SMA Type:  The SMA-type connector is the most common connector type for various horn antennas. It includes SMA Male, SMA Female, RP-SMA Male and RP-SMA Female. The SMA-type connector suit the horn antennas that starting from 0.4 GHz and ending at 26.7 GHz.

2.40 and 2.92mm Type: They are smaller SMA-type connectors for microwave waveguide horn antennas, ranging from 18GHz to 44GHz.

Horn Antenna Waveguide

At the microwave band, various waveguides are used to transmit electromagnetic energy. The regular ones are rectangular and circular elliptical cross-section waveguides. Subsequently, people had discovered that waveguides with terminal openings could also radiate outward electromagnetic waves. That’s why a waveguide radiator appears, consisting of waveguide terminal openings. The change of feeder is a natural development of transmission line waveguides.

Waveguides perform a crucial role in the successful transmission of radioactive waves. They guide the radiation by preventing the rays from spreading here and there, leading to concentrated signal strength. The radiation waves coming through a waveguide ensure that they go to a designated direction with a stronger signal. Waveguide is the heart of the horn antenna. Different horn antennas have different waveguide sizes. It entirely depends on the operating frequency ranges.

Horn Antenna Waveguide Standards vs Frequencies vs Dimensions

There are three primary international standards and 34 waveguides for horn antennas worldwide. The below table shows the models, cut-off frequency, and dimensions based on the EIA Standard, British Standard, and IEC Standard: