Standard gain UWB planar horn antennas

Abstract

Horns are an important class of UWB antenna. This paper presents a compact planar horn design well-suited to serve as a gain reference or UWB measurement instrument. The design was made both compact and well-matched by introducing a right angle turn in a tapered balun feed structure. This paper describes some of the design challenges in translating numerical modeling into a successful implementation. Finally, we implemented the design in two different scale factors: a 30cm × 30cm Model 860A horn for use from 800MHz to beyond 6GHz and a 10cm × 10 cm Model 310C horn optimized for use from 3-10GHz.