TEM horn antenna for pulse radiation: an optimized design

Various schemes have previously been used to improve the performance of the TEM horn as a pulse radiator; these include shaping of the metallic plates of the horn and using both continuous and discrete resistive loading. In most cases an empirical approach was followed in optimizing the horn. In the present paper the FDTD numerical method is used in an interactive mode to "optimize" various parameters of the horn [Shlager et al. 1994). The computed performance for the final design is compared with measurements made on an actual antenna.