Title :
Conical horn antennas with enhanced functionalities through the use of metamaterial concepts
Author :
Barbuto, Mirko ; Ramaccia, D. ; Trotta, Fabrizio ; Toscano, Alessandro ; Bilotti, Filiberto
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Eng., “Roma Tre” Univ., Rome, Italy
Abstract :
In this contribution, we report the results obtained by our group concerning the use of different metamaterial concepts to enhance performances and functionalities of conical horn antennas. First, we present an annular metamaterial lens to be placed on the aperture of a truncated horn antenna. The lens, consisting of an epsilon-near-zero metamaterial, is properly designed in order to compensate the phase delay of the field propagating along the short flare of the horn with respect to the one propagating along the axis. The phase compensation obtained through the lens results in a uniform phase distribution on the aperture that allows achieving the performances of an optimum antenna over the entire mono-modal frequency band. Then, we show a compact and planar component consisting of a metamaterial-inspired inclusion milled in a metallic screen and placed between the waveguide and the conical horn. At its operating frequencies the proposed inclusion allows transforming the linearly polarized field propagating along the waveguide into a circular one radiated by the conical horn. Moreover, due to its intrinsic narrow operation band, the proposed component acts as a compact filtering module able to reduce the out-of-band noise contribution and, thus, increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the antenna receiving system.
Keywords :
conical antennas; horn antennas; metamaterial antennas; planar antennas; annular metamaterial lens; compact component; compact filtering module; conical horn antennas; enhanced functionalities; epsilon-near-zero metamaterial; intrinsic narrow operation band; metallic screen; metamaterial concepts; metamaterial-inspired inclusion; mono-modal frequency band; optimum antenna; phase compensation; phase delay; planar component; truncated horn antenna; uniform phase distribution; Aperture antennas; Filtering; Horn antennas; Lenses; Metamaterials; circular polarization; conical horn; filtenna; lens; metamaterials;
Conference_Titel :
Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2014 8th European Conference on
Conference_Location :
The Hague
DOI :
10.1109/EuCAP.2014.6901686