Aperture impedance of flared horns

J.W. Silvestro
R E . Collin

Indexing terms: Antennas (aperture), Antennas (horns and feeds)

Abstract: The method of moments is often used

when solving for the mutual coupling in arrays of
aperture antennas. For elements that are waveguides or gradually flared horns the aperture fields
can be approximated by a finite sum of waveguide
modal functions. To solve for the flared horn case
an approximation for the aperture impedances of
the modes in the horn is needed. The WKB
approach can be used to find these impedances,
but this technique has an important limitation. It
is known to fail in the vicinity of it's turning
points. The turning point is the cutoff point of the
mode being considered. To overcome this limitation a different technique, the spherical mode
approach, is discussed. This approach has no
cutoff problems and works well for conical and
pyramidal horns. Comparisons between the
impedances and the resulting dominant mode
reflection coefficient found using the two techniques are presented to illustrate this point.
1

Introduction

The subject of mutual coupling in arrays of aperture

antennas has been considered by several authors, a few of
whom are mentioned in References 1-6. In many of these
papers the aperture fields of each of the elements are
approximated by a sum of waveguide modal functions.
Whether it is an infinite array with the free space fields
represented by Floquet modal functions [2] or a finite
array using the method of moments (see Reference 5 for
example) this is often true. In these cases the fields on the
element side of the aperture can be easily found using the
aperture impedance of the modes. For flared elements
with modest flare, the same waveguide modal functions
can be used to approximate the fields, but the needed
aperture impedances are not exactly solvable. The WKB
method has been used in the past to find these impedances and was used to solve for the coupling in an infinite
array of flared rectangular horns [ 2 ] . There is a problem
with this approach due to the failure of the WKB method
near it's turning points. The turning point here is the
cutoff point in the aperture of the mode being considered.
The cutoff points of higher order modes are often in the
frequency range of operation of a horn, so this can be an
important problem. We will look at this problem and
Paper 65278 (Ell), first received 7th June and in revised form 31st
October 1988
Dr. Collin is and Dr. Silvestro was formerly, with the Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics Department, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA. Dr. Silvestro is currently with the
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Clemson University,
Clemson, SC 29634, USA
IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H , No. 3, J U N E 1989

suggest another technique using spherical mode theory to

solve for these impedances. This technique works well for
conical and pyramidal horns of a gradual flare.
2

Mutual coupling problem

One of the techniques used to study the effects of mutual

coupling in finite arrays of matched aperture antennas is
to use the method of moments with waveguide modal
functions as both basis and testing functions (see Reference 3 for example). The aperture field is approximated
by a finite sum of these modes. The continuity of the
magnetic field across the aperture is used in setting up
the operator equation.
The basic problem is shown in Fig. 1. There are
several aperture antennas terminated on an infinite
7-

53
-

-z= 0 ---I
Fig. 1

Coupling problem in planar array of'ared

elements

ground plane (the z = 0 plane). The apertures are closed

with perfect conductors using the equivalence theorem.
Equivalent magnetic currents (J,) related to the
unknown aperture fields (E,) are placed over the apertures on both sides of the conductor, as shown in Fig. 2
for a single element. The tangential magnetic fields are
determined on both sides using these currents and set
equal across the aperture. The resulting equation is given
in eqn. 1 for a single element. H', H e and H f s are the
incident (incident upon a closed aperture), element side
( z < 0) and free space side (z > 0) fields, respectively.

Hi + He(J,)

= Hfs(-J,)

at

=0

(1)

The H e and H f s are the fields due to the unknown J,.

These terms can be arranged into an operator equation
of the form L(J,) = - H i , which can then be solved using
the method of moments. The J, are approximated by a
finite sum of weighted waveguide modal functions. These
J,,, are substituted into the operator equation and the
235

equation tested by the same modal functions. The

resulting matrix equation is then inverted to find the

tion coefficient and 2, the characteristic impedance of a

waveguide the size of the aperture. For the dominant
mode and modes already cutoff in the aperture Zi,= 2,.
cutoff

rz :

=o

z=o

Single aperture closed using equivalence theorem: I,,, = a, x E,,

Fig. 2

mode weights. Once the J,,, are known the coupling

parameters and array radiation patterns can be found
[lo]. For the multiple aperture case, eqn. 1 has the
appropriate H f s term, for each element.
One of the advantages of using the waveguide modal
functions is that the field radiated into the given element
(the He term in eqn. 1) is easily determined for each
mode. If we let:

J;

V:Y:

=
n

for aperture a, where Y nare the TE or TM modal functions and V , are the weights, then the field that each
modal function Y , radiates into the element is given by

Fig. 3

Higher order modes inflared horns

If we consider the Z , of a waveguide just below and just

above cutoff we find that r = j for TE modes and
r = - j for TM modes. The a is given by
a = [/l(z') dz'

(4)

where d is the value of z at the cutoff plane. This calculation can be carried out analytically for conical and pyramidal horns. For nonpyramidal rectangular flared horns
the value of d and the integral for a can be easily determined numerically.
There are two restrictions on the use of this method.
The first is due to the failure of the WKB technique near
it's turning points. We find the following restriction on
the use of this method 171 :

IB'I .e B'
where Z: is the appropriate aperture impedance of the
mode seen looking into the element. If the elements are
straight waveguides these impedances are the standard
waveguide impedances.
If the elements are flared horns, with a gradual flare,
the same waveguide modal functions can be used to
approximate the aperture fields. To find the fields radiated into the element using eqn. 2, an approximate
impedance for the flared horn must be determined.
Amitay et al. [2] and Clarricoats et al. [SI used the WKB
method to determine these impedances and found that it
yields usable results. We will consider that technique first.
3

(5)

where the prime denotes derivative with respect to the

propagation direction in the horn. B approaches zero for
a mode in a waveguide near cutoff. The WKB approach
treats a flared horn as a waveguide locally. Therefore, a
mode in a horn whose aperture dimensions are near the
mode cutoff size would have a very small j?. Eqn. 5 would
fail for those cases, and so the WKB approach is not
valid there. This problem can be avoided using one of the
standard WKB continuation schemes, but as we will see
later that is not necessary.
A second restriction is that the flare must be gradual.

WKB impedances

For a horn with a moderate flare the WKB approach

assumes that the horn can be treated locally as a waveguide of the same shape and size as the horn at that
point. Using that assumption we find that higher order
modes excited in the aperture will propagate down the
horn to their cutoff plane where they will be reflected.
This is shown in Fig. 3.
The aperture impedance for such modes is given by
(1

+ reZ'")

zin= 2, (1 - re'j")

(3)

where a is the phase delay of the field in travelling from

the aperture to the cutoff plane, r the appropriate reflec236

Fig. 4

Typicalflared horn where R, is radius of spherical wauefront

% R,(e,)'/2 Q 1

Difference between spherical and planar wavefronts = E,

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H , N o . 3, J U N E 1989

This is necessary since we are approximating the spherical wavefronts of fields in a flared horn by planar waveguide modes. Amitay et al. [2] worked out a limit on the
flare shown in Fig. 4.The limit is

where 8, is the horn half angle and R , is the radius of the

spherical wavefront. This restriction is also true for the
spherical mode approach to be discussed next and is not
disastrous since most flared horn elements in large
antenna arrays do have gradual flares.

Spherical mode impedances

In this approach the horns are approximated by constant

angle surfaces in a standard spherical co-ordinate system.
If the horns have a small flare angle the modes of these
structures can be used to find the approximate impedances of the planar aperture modes.
The procedure begins with the solution of the scalar
Helmholtz equation in spherical co-ordinates [9] :

V2[ + k i [ = 0
(7)
where ko is the wave propagation constant in free space.
The resulting C can be used to define the vector potentials :
A
F

A, a,

(84

= riFar= F,a,

(8b)

= rlAar =

C A and CF are solved using the appropriate boundary condition for the A and F. The fields are given by the following relations :
E = -V x F +

H=VxA+

where w is the angular frequency. If A , = 0 we find the

resulting fields are TE to a, and if F, = 0 they are TM.
Again if the flares are gradual these fields TE and TM to
a, will locally approximate the planar TE and TM waveguide modes of the cross-section being considered. The
solution is found using the separation of variables, where
[ = H(B)R(r)@(4).The boundary surfaces for conical and
quasi-pyramidal horns are shown in Fig. 5. The solutions
for the R(r) are spherical Bessel functions 6,). The @(4)is
defined by the harmonic equation which has sinusoidal
solutions. The H(8) in its current form has the associated
Legendre functions as its solution. For all our cases the
flare angles are small and we can make an approximation
that yields a form that does more closely represent the
planar waveguide modes. The approximation was first
used by Narasimhan [8] to solve the eigenvalues of such
problems. The eigenvalues can also be found with good
accuracy using variational methods and relatively simple
trial functions.
For conical horns where the horn is approximated by
a complete cone (a constant 8 surface) the boundary conditions are E,(8 = 8,) = 0 and E(4) = E(4 271). Since
0 d 8, with 8, small, we let sin (e) z 8 and the H(8)
equation reduces to Bessels equation. We find that

for TE modes that are cutoff in the flared section. For the
dominant mode (TE, ,), which propagates down to the
throat of the horn, the j , is replaced by the spherical
Hankel function h:). The n is an integer and the y =
pk J8, where the m is also an integer. The pb, is the mth
root of the derivative of the Bessel function of the order
n. J , is the Bessel function of the order n. The v is defined
by y2 = v(v
1). We find by substituting these into eqns.
8 and 9 and taking the proper ratios that

V x V x A
jwEO

VxVxF

hw0

where ( ) denotes differentiation with respect to r and

2, is the intrinsic impedance of free space (again for the
TE,, mode the h; is used). The same procedure can be

Fig. 5

Flared horn approximations in spherical co-ordinates

a Conical horn 8 = 8 ,

b Quasi-pyramidal horn

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H , N o . 3, J U N E 1989

231

carried out tor 'I'M modes to find

For TM modes y = p . ,,,/e,, where prim is the mth root of

the Bessel function of the order n.
For quasi-pyramidal horns we see that for small flare
angles B is close to 742. If we let sin 8 z 1.0 then the
resulting H(9) equation is the harmonic equation with
solutions sin (ye) or cos (ye). The y is given by y2 = v(v
1) - (n71/24~)~,
and we find that

v = -0.5

-/

(13)

Solving for the ( and using the same procedure as for the
conical horns we find that the impedances have the same
form as in eqns. 11 and 12 but use the v defined in eqn.
13. For the dominant TElo mode h:') is used here also.
As we can see from the values of [ that result for these
two cases, the fields do locally approximate a planar
waveguide mode. Therefore, for gradually flared horns we
can use these impedances to approximate the aperture
impedances of the corresponding planar waveguide
modes. The mode impedances can be evaluated by using
continued fraction expansions (see Appendix 9).
There are two restrictions on this technique also. The
first being the restriction of a gradual flare. Eqn. 6 should
be a valid requirement here also. The second is for nonpyramidal horns. Nonpyramidal rectangular flared horns
are horns where the walls if all extended would not intersect at the origin. The spherical mode approach cannot
handle such horns. For situations where the horn is not
much different from a pyramidal horn, a quasi-pyramidal
horn of similar dimensions has been found to yield reasonable results [lo].
5

modes in a pyramidal horn. In both cases we see that the

WKB results have an extraneous pole for the ZT, and an
extraneous zero for the ZTM that does not appear in the
spherical mode results. These are at the turning point
regions and as such they improperly define the cutoff
point of these modes in a flared horn. The WKB predicts
the aperture cutoff point too low. The region of error
appears to be approximately + 5 % of the cutoff value.

cutoff
-1 0

14

15

16
f r e q u e n c y , GHz

Fig. 7 Imaginary component ofnormalised impedance f o r T M , , mode

in conical horn of radius = 0.015 m and halfangle of 5"
~
_ WKB
~
_
__ spherical

Results

The impedances just solved for can now be used in eqn. 2

for conical and rectangular flared horns to find the aperture fields. The question remaining is which impedance to
use. As we will see the spherical mode approach is best
when a mode is near cutoff.
Figs. 6 and 7 show a comparison of the normalised
reactive component of the impedances of the TE,, and
TM,, modes in a conical horn with a 5" half angle. Figs.
8 and 9 show the same terms for the TE,, and TM,,

18

17

f r e q u e n c y , GHz

Fig. 8 Imaginary component of normalised impedance for T E , , mode

in square pyramidal horn of halJ angle = 5.7" and aperture dimension of
0.033 m
_
~ WKB
_
~
__ spherical

-l

cutoff
I
~

-10'

Fig. 6

10
f requency,GHz

11

12

Imaginary component of normalised impedance for T E , , mode

in conical horn ofradius = 0.015 m and halfangle of 5"
_ _ _ ~WKB
__ spherical

238

10i r e q u e n c y ,GHz

11

12

Fig. 9 Imaginary component of normalised impedance for T M , mode

in square pyramidal horn of half angle = 5.7" and aperture dimension
0.033 m
_
~ WKB
~
_
__ spherical
I E E PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H , N o . 3, J U N E 1989

The fact that the spherical mode approach is not completely valid for nonpyramidal flared rectangular horns
should not present a problem for most cases. The next
generation of satellite antenna, for example, would have
to transmit two polarisations and as such would more
than likely be square and probably pyramidal. In conclusion then we can see that the spherical mode approach
should be used when solving for the aperture impedance
for most aperture antenna coupling problems.
As a final note the WKB technique is more general
than the spherical mode method since it can handle nonpyramidal horns and also sectoral horns (see Reference 2
for a discussion on sectoral horn impedances using the
WKB method).

This range is large enough to be of concern. Outside this

region through the two results agree quite well.
It has been shown that higher order modes play an
important role in describing the aperture fields of a flared
horn [2], so it is important that these extraneous poles or
zeros not be present in the analysis. To illustrate this, Fig.
10 shows the magnitude of the reflection coefficient of the

This work was supported by NASA Lewis Research

Centre under contract N A G 3-291 for which the authors
express their appreciation.

cutoff

References

1 BAILEY, M.C.: Near field coupling between elements of a finite

planar array of circular apertures. PhD dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, USA, 1972
2 AMITAY, N., and CANS, M.J.: Design of rectangular horn arrays
with oversized aperture elements, IEEE Trans., 1981, AP-29, pp.
871-884
3 BIRD, T.S.: Mode coupling in a planar circular waveguide array,
IEE Proc. H , Microwave, Opt. & Antennas., 1979,128, pp. 172-180
4 CLARRICOATS, P.J.B., TUN, S.M., and PARINI, C.G.: Effects of
mutual coupling in conical horn arrays, ibid., 1984, 131, pp.
165-171
5 LUZWICK, J., and HARRINGTON, R.F.: Mutual coupling
analysis in a finite planar rectangular waveguide antenna array,
Electromagnetics, 1982,2, pp. 2-2
6 MAILLOUX, R.J.: Radiation and near-field coupling between two
co-linear open ended waveguides, IEEE Trans., 1969, AP-17, pp.
49-55
7 MORSE, P.M., and FESHBACH, H.: Methods of theoretical
physics, 2 Parts (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953)
8 NARASIMHAN, M.S.: Eigenvalues of a class of spherical wave
functions, IEEE Trans., 1973, AP-21, pp. 8-14
9 HARRINGTON, R.F. : Time-harmonic electromagnetic fields
(McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961)
10 SILVESTRO, J.W.: Mutual coupling in finite arrays of circular
waveguides and flared horns. Electromagnetic Waves and Wave
Propagation Report WGR-86-9, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, Ohio, 1986

dominant mode in a single pyramidal horn of the same

dimensions as the horn used in Figs. 8 and 9. The r was
found using a computer code developed to solve eqn. 1
for flared horns [lo]. The frequency range considered
includes the TE,, and TM,, modes cutoff point. The
plots present the values of r found using the WKB and
the spherical mode impedances in calculating the higher
order field terms. The aperture field in both cases was
approximated by the TE,,, TE,, and TM,, modes. As
we can see the discrepancies in the higher order mode
solutions can affect the dominant mode amplitudes as
well.

Acknowledgments

Conclusion

In conclusion we see that the WKB and spherical mode

solutions provide adequate approximations to the aperture impedance of modes in flared horns for use in
mutual coupling calculations. The disadvantage of the
WKB solution is the failure of the technique for modes
near cutoff in the aperture. This failure will have a sizeable affect on the modal amplitudes that approximate the
aperture fields. This has been shown to cause a change in
the reflection coefficient. Higher order mode cutoff frequencies are often in the frequency range of a flared horn
(see Reference 4), so it is important that the coupling into
these modes be handled correctly with the spherical
mode approach.

Appendix

9.1 Spherical mode impedance functions

By using the recurrence formulas for the spherical Bessel
functions the spherical mode impedance functions can be
developed as a continued fraction expansion which is
easily programmed and evaluated on a computer. For
the case where the argument U is greater then the order v,
the following expansion is numerically stable :

2v
1
-U

1
2
-1
-vU

1
2v-3
-U

...

+ 26
--

tan ( u IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H , No. 3, J U N E 1989

(14)

)-:
239

where v = N + 6 and N is an integer. For values of the argument

following expansion is numerically efficient and stable :

that are equal to or less than the order v the

The starting value is chosen as 1 and for good accuracy the expansion should contain terms up to approximately
M = 2u. For large values of U and v but with U > v the first expansion requires fewer terms.

240

I E E PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 136, Pt. H , No. 3, J U N E 1989