Wideband Antenna for HPM Measurements

Abstract

The measurements of microwave pulses of gigawatt power level have a lot of constraints. A receiving antenna is a starting and core point of the measurement system. Waveguide based and dipole antennas have a limited wide bands, while the use of commercially available wideband antennas is restricted by their maximum peak power acceptances. The design of the wide band antenna with the small effective area was proposed. The characteristics of prototype were obtained in numerical simulations with ANSYS HFSS software and by calibration tests in the frequency band of 1–13 GHz. It has the effective area about the 1 mm2 in X-band and square-law dependence on the wavelength in a wide band. The cross polarization rate is more than 60 dB at the centre position and not less than 30 dB within the range of ±5° in azimuth and elevation angle. The wide beam radiation pattern forces a user to discriminate reflected signals. This antenna could greatly simplify the measurement system, replacing a set of narrow band antennas that connected to several recording channels.