652 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009

Design and Simulation of a Wideband Dualpolarized Conical

Doubleridged Horn Antenna
M. Moshiri, H. Abiri, and A. A. Dastranj
ECE Department, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract— Dual-polarized antennas are widely used in many fields including measurements,
equipments, electromagnetic compatibility tests, electronic warfare, etc. These antennas in pyra-
midal horn shape have been investigated before. In this paper, the design and analysis of a
dual polarized doubleridged conical horn antenna with dual polarization, high gain and low cross
polarization for wide band applications is presented. These antennas have higher gain and lower
side lobe level than pyramidal antennas. The designed antenna has a voltage standing wave ratio
(VSWR) less than 2.5 for the frequency range of 8–18 GHz. Moreover, the proposed antenna
exhibits a very good dual polarization, low cross polarization, low side lobe level, high gain, and
relatively stable far-field radiation characteristics in the entire operating bandwidth. Quad-ridged
horn antennas also can produce dual polarization but these antennas have two input ports and
have hard manufacturing processes. In this paper, a five layers slant linear polarizer is used.
Five layer polarizer has lower VSWR than other multilayer polarizer. In order to achieve dual
polarizations, the strips width, spacing between two adjacent strips and dielectric layers thick-
ness are optimized. Dielectric material between layers is Styrofoam (² = 1.03). The proposed
antenna is simulated with commercially available packages, such as CST Microwave Studio (Sax
Software Corp.) and Ansoft HFSS (Ansoft Corp.), in the operating frequency range. Excellent
agreement is observed between two simulation results. The best result is achieved for λ/4 strips
spacing where lambda is the wave length at the mid frequency. Simulation results agree with
the theoretical results. Simulation results for the VSWR, radiation patterns, and gain of the
designed antenna over the frequency band 8–18 GHz are presented and discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION
The applications of Double-Ridged Horn (DRH) antennas in ultra wide band communication tech-
nologies continue to increase. They can be used in different systems such as reflector feeds, electronic
warfare, electromagnetic compatibility test (EMC), radar and detection systems, etc. These vari-
ous applications result from the special characteristics of these antennas such as wide bandwidth,
simple construction and high gain [1, 2]. Ref. [3], introduces a novel dual-polarized double-ridged
pyramidal horn antenna for 8–18 GHz bandwidth. A quad-ridged horn antenna on he 2–26.5 GHz
bandwidth with VSWR < 3.1 has been used for dual polarization over the wide band frequency
range [4]. In this paper, based on the doubleridged circular waveguide, a dual polarized double-
ridged conical horn antenna with a 50 Ω coaxial feed input is proposed. The proposed antenna is
simulated with commercially available packages such as Ansoft HFSS which is based on the finite
element and CST Microwave Studio which is based on the finite integral technique. Simulation
results for the VSWR, gain, and radiation patterns of the designed antenna at various frequencies
are presented.

2. DUAL-POLARIZED DOUBLE-RIDGED HORN ANTENNA STRUCTURE

In Fig. 1, the proposed antenna is shown. The dual-polarized double-ridged horn antenna is com-
posed of three parts: the feeding part, tapered (flared section) part and multilayered polarizer. The
design process of each part is explained in the next sections. The overall length of the designed
antenna (including the length of back cavity) and the radius of the horn aperture are 63 mm and
33 mm, respectively.
2.1. Coaxial to Double-ridged Circular Waveguide Transition
The transition between coaxial probe and the double-ridged waveguide is important for return
loss performance. The main goal is obtaining low levels of VSWR throughout transformation of
TEM-mode in coaxial to TE-mode in circular waveguide. For achieving low VSWR, a cavity back
is introduced at the back of circular waveguide for which the dimensions and probe spacing from
the ridged edge are optimized using a software package. The length of the cavity back is 3 mm.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009 653

Figure 1: Dual-polarized conical double-ridged horn antenna.

(a) (b)

Figure 2: Configuration of the five layer strips of the polarizer. (a) Side view, (b) overall view.

2.2. Design of Tapered Part

As described before, double-ridged waveguides are used for single mode propagation in a wide
frequency range. In tapered part, ridges vary the impedance of the guide from 0Z0 = 50 Ω at the
feeding point (doubleridged waveguide) to Zl = 120π Ω at the aperture of the horn antenna [5].
The impedance variations in the tapered part is according to:

Z(z) = Z0 ekz for 0 ≤ z ≤ l (1)

def
where z is the distance from the waveguide aperture and k = ln(Zll/Z0 ) .
If the tapered length is divided into subsections, the geometrical dimensions of each sub sections
are represented in Table 1.
3. DESIGN OF MULTILAYERED POLARIZER
In this part, we consider the multilayered polarizer placed in front of the double-ridged conical
horn antenna for providing dual polarization in the frequency range of 8–18 GHz. The multilayered
polarizer is named slant 45 degree polarizer. This device converts linear polarization to slant
45 degree, so that the antenna becomes versatile to all incoming practical signal polarizations
without affecting the antenna characteristics. Wire grid polarizers have been studied extensively
in literature and applied to antennas [6–8]. In multilayered polarizer, incoming and outgoing wave
polarization should be perpendicular to the direction of the first and the last strips of the polarizer
respectively [9]. Increasing the number of layers of the polarizer will reduce the antenna gain
significantly and increases the weight. Also more number of polarizers with different orientations
of metal strips make fabrication and optimization difficult and complicated [10]. For obtaining
lower VSWR we have used five layer polarizer. The angle between each layer of strips is 11.25
degrees (Fig. 2). In order to achieve good dual polarization, the strip width, spacing between two
adjacent strips and dielectric layer thickness should be optimized. Dielectric material that we used
is Styrofoam (² = 1.03). According to [9, 11, 12], electric field component in circular waveguide
which is perpendicular to the strip direction (in the first layer) is transmitted. Clearly minimum
absolute value of reflection of this component is desired. According to Eq. (11) in [9], this minimum
(which is equal to 0.02) is obtained if: ϕ = (2πss/λ) or ss = λ/4) where ϕ is the electrical length
of the spacing between strip layers, ss is its physical length and λ is the wavelength at the mid
654 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009

frequency. Also, according to Eq. (8) in [12], to consider a limitation for the spacing of adjacent
strips; s ¿ λ we have taken s ∼= 0.1λ. Eq. (10) in [11] and Eq. (11) in [12], are used to obtain
the strips width. By simulations with CST, the best results are achieved. On the other hand, the
proper spacing between antenna and the first layer of the polarizer is obtained by simulation as
0.1 mm. The designed wide band polarizer specifications are listed in Table 2.

Table 1: Dimensions of the tapered section.

Subsection Waveguide aperture Tapered ridge Tapered ridge

Number Radius (in mm) Height (in mm) Width (in mm)
1 7 6.5 3
2 9.53 8.8 3
3 12.4 10.5 3
4 13.4 10.8 3
5 14.7 11.2 3
6 16 11.5 3
7 17.6 12 3
8 19 12.2 3
9 20 11.8 3
10 21.8 12.2 3
11 23 11 4
12 24.4 9.5 4
13 26 7.5 4
14 27.7 5 4
15 32.7 4.2 4

Table 2: Specification of wideband polarizer.

First layer dielectric thickness (mm) 0.1

Other dielectric thickness (mm) 5.77
Strip thickness (mm) 0.1
Spacing between strips (mm) 1.65
Strip width (mm) 0.65
Dielectric material (mm) styrofoam

4. SIMULATION RESULTS
In this part, simulation results of the designed antenna is presented. Input VSWR versus frequency
is plotted in Fig. 3. A good agreement is observed for the simulation by CST and HFSS simulators.
The maximum value of the VSWR is less than 2.4 over the entire bandwidth except at f = 12.6 GHz
where it reaches 2.6. The Eθ and Eφ patterns of the antenna for the x-z and the y-z planes for
various frequencies (8, 13, 18 GHz) are shown in Figs. 4–6. The Eθ and Eφ patterns represent
vertical and horizontal polarization patterns in the x-z and y-z planes. The close values of vertical
and horizontal maximum fields represent the good dual polarization of the proposed antenna. In
conventional double-ridged horn antenna with rectangular aperture for the 8–18 GHz band [3], at
the mid frequency side lobe level is less than −9 dB, half power beam width is about 42.5 degree
and the absolute value of the maximum fields is 12.2 dBi where in conical form, side lobe level is less
than −13 dB, half power beam width is about 32 degree and the absolute value of the maximum
fields is 13.7 dBi. Also, quad-ridged horn antennas can produce dual polarization. In Ref. [4], a
quad-ridged horn antenna on the 2–26.5 GHz bandwidth with VSWR < 3.1 has been used for dual
polarization. With the advantage of wider frequency band, but VSWR is larger and has two input
ports so that it has hard manufacturing processes.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009 655

Figure 3: VSWR of dual-polarized conical DRH antenna.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 4: Radiation pattern of dual-polarized conical DRH antenna at 8 GHz. (a) Eθ (x-z plane), (b) Eφ
(x-z plane), (c) Eθ (y-z plane), (d) E (y-z plane).

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 5: Radiation pattern of dual-polarized conical DRH antenna at 13 GHz. (a) Eθ (x-z plane), (b) Eφ
(x-z plane), (c) Eθ (y-z plane), (d) E (y-z plane).

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 6: Radiation pattern of dual-polarized conical DRH antenna at 18 GHz. (a) Eθ (x-z plane), (b) Eφ
(x-z plane), (c) Eθ (y-z plane), (d) E (y-z plane).

5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a dual-polarized double-ridged conical horn antenna with high gain and low side
lobe level has been proposed for the 8–18 GHz band. The dimensions of the conical horn and the
tapered part have been optimized by simulation and the dimensions of the polarizer have been
obtained by theoretical results. Compared to the dual polarized double-ridged pyramidal horn
656 PIERS Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 18–21, 2009

antennas, the designed conical horn antenna has lower Side Lobe Level (SLL) and higher gain.
Besides, dual polarized double-ridged pyramidal horn antennas have notch in radiation patterns.
Quad-ridged horn antennas have two input ports and have hard manufacturing processes but this
double-ridged horn antenna has one input port and easy manufacturing processes. As result, the
proposed antenna is a good choice for dual polarization applications.
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