A wide Bandwidth Pyramidal Horn Antenna with Enhanced Gain Using Metasurface layer

Abstract

A new design of a pyramidal horn antenna operating at 8-18 GHz based on the waveguide structure is presented in this paper. A metasurface layer, which consists of a set of periodic unit cells, is employed on the E-plane walls of the horn antenna. This is to enhance the realised gain and bandwidth. The unit cell shape is chosen based on the cavity resonator theory. The design method of the unit cells is analyzed and presented here using the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio. The scattering parameters of a single unit cell are optimised in order to operate it at the designed operating frequencies. Compared to a conventional pyramidal horn, the proposed horn antenna gain improves up to 10 dBi. The peak gain is 23.7 dBi and the reflection coefficient at S11= -10 dB is 5%. The radiation patterns are well shaped, and are stable over a large operating frequency range. The proposed pyramidal horn antenna is relatively low profile and may be of interest in satellite communication systems.