A Simple Approach to Select the Optimum Design Frequency for Pyramidal Horn Antenna Design

ABSTRACT In this paper, a simple procedure is proposed to select the optimum design frequency for the horn antenna design by combining theory and simulation. The gain of horn antennas often increases and the aperture efficiency decreases while the frequency of operation is increased. Therefore, the proper design frequency can lead to the optimum gain and aperture efficiency over the entire operating bandwidth. The conventional design procedure of pyramidal horn antenna just recommends the design frequency to be chosen near the lower frequency of the operation bandwidth. In this contribution, we study the optimum design frequency for pyramidal horn antenna design based on a generated Matlab code to reach the maximum ascending gain as frequency increased with improved aperture efficiency across the target bandwidth. As a result, a closed form formula to obtain the optimum design frequency is extracted. The proposed formula has been evaluated and compared with the Matlab code over several standard horn antennas in different frequency bands leading to the percentage difference of less than 2%. This contribution can be useful for engineering and education purposes.