1152

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 36,

NO. 8, AUGUST

1988

- - --.-WAVE

OPEN ENDED CCWG

WAVE GUIDE WITH A FLANGE GUIDE WITH EXTERNAL FREQUENCY =10.7GHz CoRRUGATloNS

-10

m
V

L
e w 3 -20. 0 a
w

decrease the gain. The definitions of soft and hard horns include the balanced hybrid condition, i.e., low cross polarization at the design frequency. Hard boundary conditions can be realized by longitudinally oriented and dielectrically filled corrugations, or by longitudinally oriented strips on a dielectrically lined wall. Horn boundaries designed with a prescribed field taper, to compromise between increased directivity and increased sidelobes, are discussed. The solution to the spherical hybrid-modes in a conical horn with arbitrary wall impedances is also derived. Hard (or almost hard) horns may be useful as elements in cluster feeds due to their reduced size or in high-resolution systems which require close horn spacing. I. INTRODUCTION Horn antennas with low sidelobes and low cross polarization have been under continuous investigation during the last 20 years. In 1963 Potter presented his dual-mode horn [l]. Around 1966 the first hybrid-mode horns were invented, both the corrugated horn [2]-[4] and the dielguide feed [5], and have been exhaustively analyzed and developed since then. In [6] an alternative to these horn antennas, using a lossy dielectric lining on the horn wall, was described based on an earlier patent application [7]. The dielectric core horn, comprising a dielectric core separated from the horn wall by a small air gap, was first proposed in 1983 using a foamed core [8], and independently of that, in 1985 with a solid core material [9], [lo]. In 1985 the strip-loaded horn, using circumferentially oriented conducting strips on a dielectrically lined horn wall, was introduced [ l l ] , [12]. Recently, a horn with a corrugated dielectric lining on the wall was proposed [13]. Here the concept of artifically soft and hard surfaces is introduced in the context of hybrid-mode horns. Such surfaces were recently defined for electromagnetic waves in [14] in analogy with the corresponding surfaces in acoustics. A transversely corrugated surface as used in the classical corrugated horn is defined as a soft surface. Therefore, we may refer to the corrugated horn as a soft horn. It is characterized by zero field intensity at the horn wall which gives a low radiated sidelobe level. Thus it is an efficient feed for reflector antennas, providing circularly symmetric illumination and low spillover loss. The definition of soft and hard horn antennas includes the balanced hybrid condition with low cross polarization at the design frequency [151. It is also possible to make hard horn antennas from artificially hard surfaces. Hard horns may, for example, be realized by longitudinal corrugations filled with a dielectric material. Such a horn was first analyzed in [161. However, the authors did not seem to discover that this horn could be designed with a uniform aperture distribution and, therefore, maximum directivity for a given horn diameter. This is suggested and discussed in [17]. In [15] it is proposed to realize a hard horn by using longitudinally oriented conducting strips on a dielectrically lined horn wall, and a cylindrical version of it is analyzed. In this correspondence soft and hard horn antennas are compared with respect to directivity, sidelobes, and beamwidth. The dependency between the edge taper, directivity, and sidelobes is also calculated based on the solution to the spherical hybrid-modes in a conical horn with arbitrary wall impedances. This makes it possible to study how to compromise between directivity and sidelobes. Also discussed is how the different wall impedances may be realized, and some preliminary experimental work on hard horns are presented.

2
4

a W

40

-40-

20

40

60 80 POLAR ANGLE

100 120 IN DEGREES

140

160

180

Fig. 19. Measured H-plane radiation patterns of open-ended CCWG, openended cylindrical waveguide with flange, and corrugated guide at 10.7 GHz. cross sections to the required mechanical tolerances at these frequencies. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are thankful to the reviewers for their helpful suggestions.

REFERENCES
[l] R. E. Collin and F. J. Zucker, Antenna Theory Port 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969, ch. 15, pp. 621-666.

Soft and Hard Horn Antennas

ERIK LIER, MEMBER, IEEE, AND PER-SIMON KILDAL,
SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE

Abstruct-Horn antennas with soft and hard boundaries are analyzed. A soft boundary which exists in classical hybrid-mode horns gives zero field intensity at the wall. A hard boundary corresponds to a uniform field distribution over the horn aperture. A hard boundary born (or simply hard horn) gives increased directivity (typically, 1 . 6 dB) due to increased aperture efficiency, and reduced beamwidth (typically, 22 percent) compared to a soft boundary horn (or soft horn) with similar dimensions, at the expense of a higher sidelobe level. The increased directivity is valid only for horns where the field has almost constant phase over the aperture. It is also assumed that the power in the wall region is small compared to the power in the central region of the horn and that surface waves and higher order modes do not significantly

h i s work Manuscript received July 22, 1987; revised November 17, 1987. T was supported in part by the Norwegian TelecommunicationsAdministration. The authors are with ELAB, Electronikklaboratorietved NTH, N-7034 Trondheim, Norway. IEEE Log Number 8821184.

U. CLASSIFICATION OF HORNS IN TERMS OF SOFT AND HARD BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

The definitions soft and hard boundary conditions (or, simply, soft and hard boundaries) introduced in [14] can be expressed

0018-926X/88/0800-1152$01.00 0 1988 IEEE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 36, NO. 8, AUGUST 1988

1153
1 .O

by

z,=o
characterized by

IZrl=oO,

(soft)
* I

.7

E, 1 - 0
wall

Er

I =O wall
(hard)

0 3
8 4

.6
.5
.4

and

a
k

IZzl=~
characterized by
-

Z,=O,

(3)

4 .3
2
1

ar

wall

I =o

aEr I =o. ar wall

(4)

0 . 0 0.0

.I

.3

.4

.6

.8

.9

Normalized radius d l
Fig. 1. Calculated aperture field distributions for conical horn antenna with 5 semiflare angle and aperture diameter 2X under balanced hybrid , , . condition (rotationally symmetrical distribution) for different values of X

The cylindrical coordinate system (r, (p, z ) has been used for simplicity. However, similar definitions could have been given for conical waveguides by using the spherical coordinate system (R, 8, (p), as well as for waveguide cross sections different from circular. The wall impedances in (1) and (3) are defined as the ratio between the electric (E) and magnetic (H)field components tangential to the wall, given by

Soft and hard can be recognized as Dirichlet and Neumann types of boundary conditions, respectively. The definitions in (1) and (3) are forced to meet the balanced hybrid condition given by [3]

* I

0
-5 -10

5.

4J

where TO is the free-space wave impedance. This means that the field distribution over the cross section of the waveguide is rotationally symmetrical with straight field lines, giving zero cross polarization. In other words, the terms soft and hard boundaries assume the balanced hybrid condition to be satisfied. The balanced hybrid condition as well as identity with zero in (2) and (4) can only be obtained ideally when the diameter of the waveguide tends to infinity. Approximate soft and hard conditions can be defined by 1Z, I %- 1Z, I IZ,l, respectively, when (6) is satisfied. and and lZ,l

* I

HARD
( X p X J

.-.
I -

. .
I

-IS

*U

t a

(W)

Fig. 2. Calculated radiation patterns from a conical horn antenna with 5 semiflare angle and aperture diameter 2h under balanced hybrid condition (rotationally symmetrical distribution) for different values of X,.

m.FJELDDISTRBUTIONS AND RADIATION PATTERN FOR

while when X , = 03 (hard), the field intensity is constant over the aperture. By using a wall-impedance model to describe the field in a conical Fig. 2 shows the calculated radiation patterns from the same horn horn, the aperture field distributions and radiation patterns can be aperture for different field distributions corresponding to different calculated for chosen values of the wall impedances Z , and ZR in the values of X,.It can be seen that hard boundary conditions give higher spherical coordinate system (R, 8, (p). Let us assume walls without directivity and smaller beamwidth due to the increased aperture R at the wall, efficiency compared to soft conditions, which may be an advantage losses and apply the reactance X , and susceptance B given by for some applications. However, the disadvantage is that the sidelobe z , = j x , ZR= 1/JBR (7) level is much higher. The hard horn has significantly higher directivity than a soft horn where only if it has almost constant phase over the aperture, i.e., aperture controlled as defined in [18]. Such a horn is termed narrow band in [19], as it has a frequency-dependent beamwidth. For a flareto meet the balanced hybrid condition defined in the spherical angle controlled horn [18] or correspondingly wide-band horn coordinate system. The field distribution within the horn can be [19], which is frequency-independent with respect to the beamwidth, calculated numerically by assuming a spherical hybrid-mode. The the increased directivity cannot be obtained. The ideal aperturecharacteristic equation for determination of the eigenvalue is given in controlled horn has a constant phase front over the aperture. This can Appendix I. The far-field radiation pattern is calculated by a be obtained by using a ray-correcting lens in the aperture, by profiling the horn, or approximately by using a very long horn. Kirchoff-Huygen integration over the spherical phase front. It should also be mentioned that a cylindrical waveguide radiator is Fig. 1 illustrates the calculated field intensity over the horn aperture for given horn dimensions where the wall reactance X, is a ideally aperture controlled. The horn calculated in Figs. 1 and 2 is parameter. As IX,l increases, the field intensity at the wall increases. almost aperture controlled. In the limit when X, = 0 (soft), the field intensity is zero at the wall, When the horn has an arbitrary flare angle, the method shown in
ARBlTRARY WALL IMPEDANCES

1154

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 36, NO. 8, AUGUST 1988

Appendix I should be used to calculate the field distribution interior to the horn. For a very long horn with a small flare angle, or for a cylindrical waveguide radiator, cylindrical waves can be assumed within the horn. Thus for waveguides with circular or rectangular cross sections, simple analytical expressions can be derived both for the interior field distribution and for the radiation pattern (see Appendices 1 1 and III). Fig. 3 illustrates the relative directivity and relative sidelobe level against the edge taper A (relative field intensity at the wall defined in Appendix II) for a waveguide with circular cross section. The term (1 cos 0)/2 is neglected in the calculations of the sidelobes (see Appendix 11), which is valid only when the radius a is not too small. When A increases, the directivity increases. The relation between A and the wall reactance X, is shown in Fig. 4 where the relative diameter D / h of the waveguide is a parameter (A is the free-space wavelength). The theoretical achievable increase from an ideally soft to an ideally hard boundary horn with circular cross section is 1.60 dB, which is equivalent to a reduction of the beamwidth of about 22 percent (see Table I). This corresponds to a 69-percent aperture efficiency for a soft horn. Alternatively, a hard boundary horn has about 17-percent smaller aperture diameter than a soft boundary horn with the same directivity and beamwidth. At the same time, the sidelobe level increases by about 10 dB to 17.6 dB below the main lobe level when comparing hard with soft horns. In the same table it can be seen that the improved performance for rectangular horns is even larger than for circular horns. However, the sidelobe level is as high as 13.3 dB in a plane parallel to either of the waveguide walls. Most often there will be a trade-off between increased directivity, decreased beamwidth, and increased sidelobe level which should be kept below a certain value. Note that the sidelobe level for the soft horn in Table I varies with the horn diameter in general, and a typical value is used. Note that for small horn apertures the sidelobe level and beamwidth will be reduced compared to the values given in Table I according to the factor (1 + cos 0)/2. For small horns the relative power in the wall region may be large and reduce the gain.

1
0.0

1-1.6
1 .o

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

SOFl

Edge t a p e r A

HARD

Fig. 3. Calculated relative directivity and typical sidelobe level versus edge taper for horn antenna with constant phase over aperture under balanced hybrid condition. (Directivity is normalized to directivity for constant amplitude and phase distribution.)

w.REALIZATION OF HARD HORNSAND HORNSWITH ARBITRARY

WALLIMPEDANCES
In [20] a horn having longitudinally oriented corrugations was analyzed. It was concluded that the horn could support a modified TEll-mode with straighter field lines than for the nominal TEIImode, which gives low cross polarization. In [16] a similar horn was analyzed where the longitudinal corrugations were filled with a dielectric material. However, none of these articles mentioned that an , ." almost uniform aperture illumination was achieved, resulting in an 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 .o Edge t a p e r A increased directivity. In fact, it can be shown that the horn antennas with longitudinal Fig. 4. Wall reactance versus edge taper for circular cylindrical waveguide corrugations approximate the hard boundary conditions when the under balanced hybrid condition where normalized diameter is parameter. depth of the corrugations is [16], [14]
TABLE I

and the dominant hybrid mode is assumed. We see that when the corrugations are air filled (relative permittivity of dielectric material er = l), the hard boundary conditions can only be met exactly in the limit when the corrugations are infinitely deep. The strip-loaded horn with longitudinally oriented strips presented in [15] has approximately the same electrical performance as the previously described corrugated horn [16]. It can be shown that the horn meets the hard boundary conditions at a given frequency when the approximate thickness of the dielectric wall is given by (9), which is asymptotically correct for large waveguide dimensions [2 11. At lower frequencies the dominant mode exhibits TEII-properties. At

COMPARISON BETWEEN HARD AND SOFT HORNS

Cross Section

Increased Reduced Reduced Sidelobe Level Directivity Beamwidth Size Hard Horn Soft Horn (Percent) (Percent) (dB) (dB) (dB) 1.60 1.82

Circular Rectangular

22 26

11 19

-17.6 -13.3

-27.5 -23.0

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION,

VOL. 36, NO. 8, AUGUST

z q 5 r =z

1988

1155
z+r =z

hI777j

jil

(a) (b) Fig. 5. Structure for arbitrary wall impedance. (a) Combination of grid and dielectric. (b) Transmission line equivalent.

Fig. 6. Dielectric core horn with inverse-graded index.

higher frequencies the dominant mode turns into a surface wave, characterized by an imaginary radial wavenumber internal to the horn, but still having a real propagation constant. In a horn with a hard boundary, surface waves (in the case of longitudinal strips) and higher order modes may exist, which will limit the gain increase caused by the assumed uniform aperture illumination. This effect has to be studied and quantified further. Hard horns with longitudinal strips and longitudinal corrugations have been measured [15]. Sidelobes levels from - 15 to - 20 dB have been obtained, with peak cross polarization below -25 dB. This indicates that an approximately uniform aperture illumination has been obtained as assumed in this article. The relatively high cross polarization is probably caused by surface waves as well as higher order modes. A horn which is required to have maximum possible gain, where the sidelobes are to be kept below a given level, is ideally achieved by providing finite wall impedances (see Figs. 3 and 4). Such a horn may be realized by a combination of dielectric lining and a conducting grid structure on the wall, as shown in Fig. 5. By a proper choice of the parameters, the balanced hybrid conditions can be met, where X , is different from zero and infinity. By choosing a complex grid structure with two or more dielectric layers with grids in between, a more broad-band wall impedance can in principle be achieved. A chosen field tapex at the wall with finite values of X , can also in principle be achieved by a dielectric core horn with an inverse graded index behavior (Fig. 6), which spreads the field away from the symmetry axis. The phase error can be corrected by shaping the aperture surface properly. From the literature it is known that increased directivity due to increased aperture efficiency can be achieved by using a dielectric lining on the horn wall [23], [24]. In [24] an almost uniform aperture illumination has been reported for a circular cylindrical horn having approximately 1-wavelength diameter. However, the peak cross polarization is not better than -29 dB.
V. CONCLUSION In this communication horn antennas having soft and hard boundary conditions, denoted by soft and hard horns, respectively, are discussed. The corresponding soft and hard boundaries are defined in terms of an anisotropic surface impedances. The definitions of soft and hard horns are based on circular cylindrical cross sections, but may easily be extended to horns with arbitrary cross sections, e.g., rectangular or elliptical.

Compared to the traditional soft boundary horn with zero field intensity at the wall, 1.60-dB increased directivity and 22-percent reduced beamwidth can theoretically be obtained with a hard boundary horn with a circular cross section, having constant amplitude and phase distribution over the aperture. At the same time, the relative sidelobe level increases to 17.6 dB. For a horn with rectangular cross section the corresponding directivity can be increased by 1.82 dB and the beamwidth reduced by 26 percent, while the sidelobe level increases to 13.3 dB. The advantage of using a hard horn is to obtain maximum directivity, or minimum beamwidth, for given aperture dimensions. The maximum theoretical reduction of the aperture diameter for the same directivity and beamwidth is about 17 and 19 percent when comparing hard with soft horns with circular and rectangular cross sections, respectively. The condition for the increased directivity is that the phase be almost constant over the aperture of the horn and that the relative power in the wall region is negligible. Ideally hard boundary conditions may be obtained by a horn with longitudinally oriented corrugations filled with dielectric, or alternatively, by longitudinally oriented conducting strips on a dielectrically lined wall. Arbitrary wall impedances, which may be desired to keep the sidelobes below a given level, can, in principle, be realized by a combination of conducting grids and dielectric on the wall or by an inverse graded index horn. The characteristic equation for the spherical hybrid mode in a conical horn with arbitrary wall impedances is derived here as well. Hard boundary horns may be applied as elements in cluster feeds to reduce the size of the array or in high-resolution systems where the horns should be placed close together. Possible problems might be caused by surface waves and coupling between the horns when used in an array configuration, as well as by radiation from the wall region. These effects will be studied in more detail. APPENDIX I CHARACTERISTIC EQUATION FOR THE EIGENVALUE IN A CONICAL HORNWITH ARBITRARY WALL IMPEDANCES The characteristic equation for the eigenvalue v of a corrugated horn is given in [22] with the wall impedance 2, as a parameter and 2 , = 0. The general characteristic equation where 2 , # 0 will now be constructed based on the expressions in [22]. The expressions for the wall impedance when the field interior to the horn is described in

1156
terms of a single spherical hybrid-mode become

IEEE TRANSACTiONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 36, NO. 8, AUGUST 1988

For ideal soft and hard conditions we obtain

-Z-=H ER ,

W ~ I

.ikR/s
=-- V(v+l)

P$ 4-

(11)

p;d=

where the incident field is the TEll-mode, kR 9 1 where R denotes the distance from the horn apex and k is the free-space propagation constant, CY is the semiflare angle of the horn and should be not close to zero, and

(hard) (18) When the radius a is large, the term (1 cos 0)/2 has negligible effect on the main lobe and first sidelobes as 8 is small. A more convenient parameter than pa is the edge taper defined by

(soft)
aJl(kusin8)]

[47ri kasin8

l+?e]2

where Pt is an associated Legendre function of order 1 and degree v. By eliminating A from (10) and ( l l ) , the characteristic equation becomes

A = Jo(Pu).

(19)

Z;.-&PbCY]

[ z,

-- + -vP JkR ( v t (+ al))

=[

kR v( v + 1) sin

When A = 0 and 1, the boundary is soft and hard, respectively. The relation between p a and the wall reactance X, = qtBR can be derived from (19) and the field expressions in [19],

].(I,)
CY

The eigenvalue v can be solved from the last equation by an iterative process, where the first estimate may be expressed by (14)

For a given value of the edge taper A or pa X , increases with a/A. APPENDIX III
RADIATION FROM A RECTANGULAR WAVEGUIDE WITH SOFTAND

HARD BOUNDARIES

The field distribution interior to a rectangular waveguide with dimensions a x b can be expressed by

p( i x ) ( Z Y ) ,
cos
APPENDIX

(soft)

II

RADIATION FROM A CIRCULAR CYLINDRICAL WAVEGUIDE UNDER BALANCED HYBRID CONDITlON AND WITH ARBITRARY WALL

It is assumed that the dimensions are large compared to the wavelength A. The directive gain can than be expressed as

IMPEDANCE
The y-polarized field distribution in a circular cylindrical waveguide can be expressed by

4 ;
-a/

Ey=-qoHx=Jo(pr)

p=-

2.405
U

(1 -6),

(05651)

(15)

-b/Z

E : dx dy
(23)

where J is a Bessel function of the first kind. It is assumed that the field is propagating under the balanced hybrid condition and that the radius a is large compared to the wavelength A (straight field lines and rotationally symmetrical distribution). When 6 = 0, the boundary is soft, while when 6 = 1, the boundary is hard. The directive gain from the aperture can be expressed by

where

kx= k sin 8 cos

cp

ky= k sin 8 sin 9

(24)

k = 2a/A and (r, 8, cp) denote the spherical coordinates for the far

p;d =

[ 1;
47r

JO(pr)eJkrsinecos~r dr dcp [J;(pr)r dr dcp

0

1
e)

[4. h

a ka sin BJo(pa)Jl(ka sin e)-puJl(pa)Jo(kusin

[(ka sin e ) z - ( p a ) 2 ] [ J ~ ( p u ) + J ~ ( p a ) ] 1 2

where (r, 8, cp) denote the spherical coordinates for the far field.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 36, NO. 8, AUGUST 1988

1157

field. For ideal soft and hard conditions we obtain cos2 (kx

256 a b
7r3

AA

[ (
1-

4)

cos2 (ky

k x$ -1 2

[ (
1-

:)

[I71 [I81 [I91 [20]

ky212

Py=
2
2

[21]

4r --

ab

AA

[22] [23] (hard). [24]

[y]
,

a longitudinally slotted horn with dielectric-filled slots, Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., vol. 132, pt. H., no. 7, Dec. 1985. E. Lier and P-S. Kildal, Dielectrically lined horn antennas, presented at the Informal Workshop on Primary Feeds and RF-Sensing Systems, ESTEC, The Netherlands, June 10-11, 1987. P-S. Kildal, A Gaussian beam model for aperture-controlled and flareangle-controlled corrugated horn antennas, Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., pt. H, to be published. B. MacA. Thomas, Design of corrugated conical horns, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-26, pp. 367-372, Mar. 1978. T. Scharten, J. Nellen, and F. van den Bogaart, Longitudinally slotted conical horn antenna with small flare angle, hoc. Inst. Elec. Eng., vol. 128, pt. H., no. 3, pp. 117-123, June 1981. E. Lier, Theoretical analysis of the strip-loaded hybrid-mode horn antenna with soft and hard boundaries based on a circular cylindrical model, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., submitted. P. J. B. Clarricoats and A. D. Olver, Corrugated horns for microwave antennas, in Inst. Elec. Eng. Electromagnetic Waves Series 18. London: Peregrinus, 1984, ch. 3. G. N. Tsandoulas and W. D. Fitzgerald, Aperture efficiency enhancement in dielectrically loaded horns, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-20, pp. 69-74, Jan. 1972. A. Kumar, Dielectric-lined waveguide feed, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-27, pp. 279-282, Mar. 1979.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors want to thank Tom Cwik for commenting on the article, and Allan Love for a detailed review.
REFERENCES

P. D. Potter, A new horn antenna with suppressed sidelobesand equal beamwidth, Microwave J., vol. VI, pp. 71-78, June 1963. A. J. Simmons and A. F. Kay, The scalar feed-A high performance feed for large paraboloidal reflectors, in Inst. Elec. Eng. Conf. Publ. 21, June 1966, pp. 213-217. H. C. Minnett and B. MacA. Thomas, A method of synthesizing radiation patterns with circular symmetry, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.. vol. AP-14, pp. 654-656, Sept. 1966. V. H. Rumsey, Horn antennas with uniform power patterns around their axis, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-14, pp. 656658, Sept. 1966. H. E. Bartlett and R. E. Mosely, Dielguides-Highly efficient low noise antenna feeds, Microwave J., vol. 9, pp. 53-58, Dec. 1966. C. M. b o p , Y.-B. Cheng, and E. L. Ostertag, On the fields in a conical horn having an arbitrary wall impedance, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-34, pp. 1092-1098. Sept. 1986. US Patent 4 410 892, Oct. 1983; European Patent pending. P. J. B. Clarricoats, A. D. Olver, and M. S. A. S. Rizk, A dielectric loaded conical feed with low crosspolar radiation, in Proc. URSZ Symp. EM Theory, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Aug. 23-26, 1983, pp. 351-354. R. Lier and J . A. Aas, Simple hybrid mode horn feed loaded with a dielectric cone, Electron. Lett., vol. 21, no. 13, pp. 563-654, June 20, 1985. E. Lier, A dielectric hybrid mode antenna feed: A simple alternative to the corrugated horn, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP34, pp. 21-29, Jan. 1986. E. Lier, T. Schaug-Pettersen, and J. A. Aas, New classes of hybrid mode antennas-Alternatives to corrugated horn feeds, in Proc. ZEEEAJRSZSymp., Vancouver, BC, June 1985, sec. B-18-6, p. 241. E. Lier and T. Schaug-Petterson, The strip-loaded hybrid-mode feed horn, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-35, pp. 10861089, Sept. 1987. S. F. Mahmoud and M. S. My, A new version of dielectric lined waveguide with low cross-polar radiation, ZEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.. vol. AP-35, pp. 210-212, Feb. 1987. P-S. Kildal, Definition of artificially soft and hard surfaces for electromagneticwaves, Electron. Lett., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 168-170, Feb. 4, 1988. E. Lier and P-S. Kildal, A novel type of high-gain horn antennas, in Proc. ZCAP Conf., York, England, March 30-April 2, 1987, pp. 431-433. M. S. Aly and S. F. Mahmoud, Propagation and radiation behavior of

The Input Impedance of a Probe-Fed Rectangular Cavity which Transmits Through a Plasma-Covered Cylindrical Body
JOHN M. JAREM, MEMBER, IEEE, AND CHAO-MING MA
Abstract-A method of moments solution for the input impedance of a probe-fed cavity which radiates through a plasma-covered cylindrical body is presented. A general description of the method of moments solution and cylindrical aperture analysis is given. Mathematical expressions are given for the cylindrical aperture admittances. Numerical examples of the input impedance which correspond to cylinders of several different radii have been generated when free space is assumed to cover the antenna aperture and when an inhomogeneous plasma is assumed to cover the antenna aperture.

I. INTRODUCTION

An important problem in the area of missile antenna theory is the problem of determining the input impedance of a probe-fed cavity aperture antenna which radiates from a cylindrical missile body which is covered by an inhomogeneous plasma sheath. The solution of this problem has been determined approximately by the use of a single mode aperture admittance analysis [l], [2] and has been determined more fully by the method of moments [3]. In the aperture admittance analysis the region exterior to the plasma aperture was approximated by both an infinite ground plane [l] and an infinitely Manuscript received March 29, 1987; revised November 5, 1987. This work was supported in part by the Sandia National Laboratories under Antenna Development Contract DOC 95-1400. This work was presented at the 1987 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium and URSI Radio Science Meeting, Blacksburg, VA. (See [4].) J. M. Jarem is with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL 35899. C. M. Ma is with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79912. IEEE Log Number 8821189.

oO18-926X/88/08oO-1157$01 .oO 0 1988 IEEE