$W$-Band Compact and Lightweight Additively Manufactured Geodesic H-Plane Horn Antenna

A compact and lightweight geodesic H-plane horn antenna is designed and experimentally validated in the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$W$</tex-math></inline-formula>-band. Two corners in the aperture of the horn are truncated to increase aperture efficiency and reduce the weight and volume of the antenna. The prototype was monolithically printed in AlSi10Mg through laser powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing, resulting in a weight of only 14 g. The prototype maintains good frequency stability from 75 to 110 GHz, with sidelobe levels lower than <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-25$</tex-math></inline-formula> dB and return loss better than 15 dB. The measured data show a realized gain of 20 dBi with an aperture efficiency of around 60% (calculated using <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">realized gain</i>) and an estimated radiation efficiency of better than 70%.