01-05-2024

Aperture antennas

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Aperture antennas

➢ Aperture antennas are very practical for space applications, because they can be flush
mounted on the surface of the spacecraft or aircraft.
➢ May take the form of a waveguide or a horn whose aperture may be square,
rectangular, circular, elliptical, or any other configuration.

➢ The radiation characteristics of wire antennas can be determined once the current
distribution on the wire is known.
➢ For many configurations, however, the current distribution is not known exactly and
only physical intuition or experimental measurements can provide a reasonable
approximation to it.
➢ Alternate methods to compute the radiation characteristics of antennas is to rely
primarily not on the current distribution but on reasonable approximations of the
fields on or in the vicinity of the antenna structure.

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FIELD EQUIVALENCE PRINCIPLE: HUYGENS’ PRINCIPLE

• A principle by which actual sources, such as an antenna and transmitter, are

replaced by equivalent sources. The fictitious sources are said to be equivalent
within a region because they produce the same fields within that region.

The field equivalence was introduced in 1936 by S. A. Schelkunoff and it is a more

rigorous formulation of Huygens’ principle which states that “each point on a primary
wavefront can be considered to be a new source of a secondary spherical wave and
that a secondary wavefront can be constructed as the envelope of these secondary
spherical waves.”

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Uniqueness theorem
• The equivalence principle is based on the uniqueness theorem which
states that
• “a field in a lossy region is uniquely specified by the sources within the
region plus the tangential components of the electric field over the
boundary, or the tangential components of the magnetic field over the
boundary, or the former over part of the boundary and the latter over
the rest of the boundary”.
• Thus if the tangential electric and magnetic fields are completely known
over a closed surface, the fields in the source-free region can be
determined.

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RECTANGULAR APERTURES

The first aperture examined is a rectangular aperture

mounted on an infinite ground plane

RECTANGULAR APERTURES

To form the equivalent, a closed surface is chosen which extends from −∞ to +∞ onthe x-y plane.

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RECTANGULAR APERTURES

E-plane pattern is on the y-z plane (φ = π/2)

and the H-plane is on the x-z plane (φ = 0).

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RECTANGULAR APERTURES

Horn Antenna

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 The horn is nothing more than a hollow pipe of different cross sections, which has been
tapered (flared) to a larger opening. The type, direction, and amount of taper (flare) can
have a profound effect on the overall performance of the element as a radiator.

 An electromagnetic horn can take many different forms, four of which are

(a) E-plane (b) H-plane

(c) Pyramidal (d) Conical

The horn is widely used as a feed element for large radio astronomy, satellite tracking, and
communication dishes found installed throughout the world.

Its widespread applicability stems from its simplicity in construction, ease of excitation,
versatility, large gain, and preferred overall performance.

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E-Plane Horn
The E-plane sectoral horn is one whose opening is flared in the direction of
the E-field.
It can be shown that if the (1) fields of the feed waveguide are those of its
dominant TE mode and (2) horn length is large compared to the aperture
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dimensions:
➢ The expressions are similar to the fields of a TE10-mode for a rectangular
waveguide with aperture dimensions of a and b1(b1 > a).
➢ The only difference is the complex exponential term which is used here
to represent the quadratic phase variations of the fields over the aperture
of the horn.

E-Plane Horn
The primes are used to indicate the fields at the
aperture of the horn.

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E-Plane Horn
At any point y’ at the aperture of the horn, the phase of the field will not be the same as that at the origin( y = 0). The
phase is different because the wave has traveled different distances from the apex to the aperture. The difference in path of
travel, designated as δ(y’), can be obtained by referring to Figure 13.2(b).
For any point y’

which is referred to as the spherical phase term. when multiplied by the phase factor k, the result is identical to the
quadratic phase term in (13-1).

peak aperture phase error (S = ρe − ρ1 )

or T = ( ρh − ρ2 )

E-Plane Horn Radiated Fields

To find the fields radiated by the horn, only the tangential components of the E- and/or H-fields over a closed
surface must be known. The closed surface is chosen to coincide with an infinite plane passing through the mouth of
the horn.

In the principal E- and H-planes, the electric field

the E-plane pattern is much narrower than the H-plane because of the flaring and larger dimensions of the horn in that
direction.

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E-Plane Horn
Radiated Fields
For most horn antennas |E|max is directed nearly along the z-axis (θ = 0◦). E- and H-Plane Patterns of
the E-Plane Sectoral Horn
optimum directivity occurs when
E-Plane
H-Plane
00

300 300

Relative power (dB down)

10

20

600 600

The directivity of an E-plane sectoral horn can also be computed

30

by using the following procedure

30 20 10
900 900
(If value of B is
smaller than 2)

1200 1200

1500 1500

1800

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H-PLANE SECTORAL HORN

• Flaring the dimensions of a rectangular waveguide in the direction of the H-field, while keeping the other
constant, forms an H-plane sectoral horn

H-PLANE SECTORAL HORN

Aperture Fields
The fields at the aperture of the horn can be found by treating the horn as a radial
waveguide forming an imaginary apex
E- and H-Plane Patterns of
the H-Plane Sectoral Horn

E-Plane
H-Plane
00

300 300
Relative power (dB down)

10

20

600 600
30

30 20 10
900 900

1200 1200

1500 1500
This horn exhibits narrow pattern characteristics in the flared H-plane. 1800

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H-PLANE SECTORAL HORN

optimum directivity occurs when

The directivity of an H-plane sectoral horn can also be computed by using the
following procedure
(If the value of A
is smaller than 2)

PYRAMIDAL HORN

The most widely used horn is the one which is flared in both directions, as shown in Figure 13.18.
Its radiation characteristics are essentially a combination of the E- and H-plane sectoral horns.

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PYRAMIDAL HORN
E and H-Plane Patterns
E-Plane

H-Plane

00
0
30 300

Relative power (dB down)

10

20

600 600
30

30 20 10
900 900

1200 1200

the pattern of a
0 1500
pyramidal horn is very narrow in both principal planes
150
and, in
fact, in all planes. 1800

PYRAMIDAL HORN

To physically construct a pyramidal horn, the dimension pe should be equal to the dimension ph given by

where DE and DH are the directivities of the E- and H-plane

sectoral horns

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E- and H-Plane Patterns of The

Conical Horn Antenna

E-Plane
H-Plane

00
0
30 300

Relative power (dB down)

10

20

600 600
30

30 20 10
900 900

1200 1200

1500 1500
0
180

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