The folded horn antenna

Abstract

Antennas for radiating high-power mesoband (medium-bandwidth) electromagnetic signals are critical to the mission of upsetting electronics at a distance. When operated at frequencies of a few hundred megahertz, RF weapons require highly efficient antennas that can fit into a small volume. Most of the existing antennas, such as pyramidal horns, are too large to fit onto certain platforms of interest. To address this challenge, we investigate the folded horn, which has aperture dimensions of 0.5 × 2 wavelengths, and a depth of 1.5-2 wavelengths. This antenna has a nearly focused aperture field, due to a parabolic fold in the H-plane. We report here on the fabrication and testing of the first folded horn, operating at 3 GHz. After a number of iterations, we obtained a realized gain of at least 10 dBi over 3-5 GHz, an aperture efficiency of 80%, and a return loss below -10 dB over 2.8-3.35 GHz. This design could be adapted to high-voltages, and it could work well in a two-antenna array, with two antennas positioned back to back, driven by a differential source. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010.