Shaped beam horn antenna for enhanced gain at edge of global coverage

This paper reports design and development of a new shaped beam horn antenna for enhanced gain at edge of global coverage. The horn is designed at Ku-band (10.7–11.2 GHz). This horn is tailored for specific shaped beam for global coverage. It has three sections: stepped section, axial corrugated section and radial corrugated section. Shaped beam is achieved with help of multi-modes at aperture of the horn. The horn is analysed and optimised using Mode-Matching-Technique- and Method-of-Moments-based software TICRA CHAMP. It is fabricated with aluminium alloy 6061T6 material using computerised-numerically-controlled-based turning machine. The measured return loss and patterns match well with predicted one. The fabricated shaped global horn has established measured return loss >17 dB, cross-polarisation discrimination (<−40 dB) and enhanced edge of coverage gain (>18.36 dB). The methodology of horn design offers extra degree of flexibility to design a variety of shaped horn antennas with tailored radio frequency performances for specific spacecraft application.