Gain enhancement for conventional circular horn antenna by using EBG technique

The new technique of the Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) for gain enhancement of a conventional circular horn antenna without its construction enlargement is presented. The gain enhancement synthesis method for woodpile EBG, which is the 3D volumetric structures, that has to transfer the electromagnetic fields from aperture of a circular horn antenna through woodpile EBG is presented by using the quadratic shaped woodpile EBG structures. The proposed technique has the advantages of low profile, low cost for fabrication and light weight. The antenna characteristics such as reflected power (S₁₁), radiation patterns, and gain are simulated by using a Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software. With the proposed concept, an antenna prototype was fabricated and experimented. The antenna characteristics are obtained from measurements which show a good agreement between simulated and measured results. The gain at operating frequency of 10 GHz is 25.34 dB, suitable for application for X-band radar and I-band beyond following the IEEE and the ITU, respectively, that higher than the gain of the basic circular horn antenna around 6 dB with adding only one appropriated EBG structures.