Compact Wideband Corrugated Feedhorns With Ultra-Low Sidelobes for Very High Performance Antennas and Quasi-Optical Systems

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation 2013-04, Vol.61 (4), p.1714-1721
• Main Authors: McKay, J. E., Robertson, D. A., Cruickshank, P. A. S., Hunter, R. I., Bolton, D. R., Wylde, R. J., Smith, G. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antenna measurements; Apertures; Bandwidth; Beam coupling; corrugated feedhorn; Couplings; Gaussian beams; Imaging; quasi-optics; Radar imaging; Software; ultra-low sidelobes
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2013.2243097

The corrugated or scalar feedhorn has found many applications in millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave systems due to its high beam symmetry, relatively low sidelobe levels and strong coupling to the fundamental mode Gaussian beam. However, for applications such as millimeter wave cosmology, space-based experiments, or even high performance imaging, there is a generic requirement to reduce the size of horns whilst maintaining very high levels of performance. In this paper we describe a general analytic methodology for the design of compact dual-profiled corrugated horns with extremely low sidelobe levels. We demonstrate that it is possible to achieve -50 dB sidelobe levels, over wide bandwidths with short horns, which we believe represents state-of-the-art performance. We also demonstrate experimentally a simple scalar design that operates over wide bandwidths and can achieve sidelobes of better than -40 dB, whilst maintaining a frequency independent phase center. This design methodology has been validated experimentally by the successful manufacture and characterization of feedhorns at 94 GHz and 340 GHz for both radar and quasi-optical instrumentation applications.