Lecture-4

3.4 Relation between wire and aperture antennas:

In this previous chapter we have studied the behavior of wire antennas and in the present
chapter we have studied the aperture antennas. Now is time to see the relationship between these
two complementary structure antennas. This issue in electromagnetics was explained by Booker.
Booker's principle in electromagnetics is basically an extension of Babinet's principle in optics,
which states that "when the field behind a screen with an opening is added to the field of a
complementary structure, the sum is equal to the field when there is no screen". Without
discussing the details of Booker's principle, the outcomes of the principle are presented here.
3.4.1 Result from Booker's principle
1.

If a screen and its complements are immersed in a medium with an intrinsic

impedance and have terminal impedances ZS and ZC, respectively, the impedance are
related by
Z S ZC

(3.15)

2. The far-zone fields radiated by the opening on the screen are related to the far-zone
fields of the complement by

E S HC

E S H C

H S

E C

2
0

H S

EC

02

(3.16)

(3.17)

3. The pattern of the slot is identical in shape to that of the dipole except that the E- and
H-fields are interchanged.
When a vertical slot is mounted on a vertical screen, its electrical field is horizontally
polarized while that of the dipole vertically polarized.
Changing the position of the slot or the screen will change the polarization.
3.5 Horn Antennas
The reason of studying horn antenna here is that, it can be treated as an aperture antenna.
To find its radiation characteristics, the equivalent principle techniques can be utilized. To
develop an exact equivalent for the horn antenna, it is necessary that the tangential electric and

magneticc field comp

ponents overr a closed su
urface are knnown. The cclosed surfacce that is ussually
selected in case of horn antenna is an infinitte plane thatt coincides w
with the aperrture of the horn.
When the horn is no
ot mounted on
o an infinitte ground pllane, the fielld outside thhe aperture iis not
known and
a an exacct equivalentt cannot bee formed. H
However, thee usual appproximation is to
assume th
hat the fields outside thee aperture are zero.
The
T fields att the aperture of the ho
orn can be found be trreating the horn as a rradial
waveguid
de. As far ass the shape of
o the horn an
ntenna is conncerned, it iss nothing moore than a hoollow
pipe of different
d
cro
oss sections which has been flaredd to a largerr opening. IIt can take m
many
different forms, few of which aree shown in Fig.3.8.
F

Fig. 3.8 Different typees of horn anntennas

The overrall performaance of a ho
orn antenna depends on the type, direction, andd amount of flare.
Besides its
i use as a single
s
elemeent radiator in
i high power applicatioons, the hornn antenna is most
widely used
u
as a feeed for reflecttor and lens antennas. Itt is a comm
mon element of phased aarrays
and serv
ves as a univ
versal stand
dard for caliibration andd gain measuurements off other highh-gain
antennas. Its wide spread app
plicability sttems from its simpliciity in consttruction, easse of
n, versatility
y, large gain,, and preferred overall peerformance.
excitation
In
n this sectio
on, without doing the detail
d
analysis of the hoorn antenna,, only the ddesign
equation and the equations for th
he major paraameters are pprovided.

3.5.1 Dessign equatio

on:

Fig.3.9 Py
yramidal horn
n antenna crross-section.

L
h
1
cos

L
2L

tan 1

(3.18)

h2
L
8

(3.19)

3.5.2 Parrameters:
1. HPBW in E and H directions are

56
5
deg.
h

56
ddeg.
w

(3.20)

2. The directiivity D is giv

ven by

7.5A

(3.21)

3. Power giveen by

GP

4.1A

(3.22)

Note:

Typical values of are 0.25, 0.32, 0.40 for plane horn, conical horn, and H- plane horn
respectively.
Ax there is no resonant element involved in the horn antenna and hence they can be
operated over a board of frequency.