Finite-difference time-domain technique for radiation by horn antennas

A generalization of the FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) method, the contour path FDTD method, is applied to model radiation by horn antennas. The contour path FDTD method takes into account the nonrectangular antenna surface by distorting the contours near and on the flared surface of the horn antenna. The remaining cells away from the flared parts retain their basic cubic form. In the present work, both the staircase and contour path FDTD approaches are used to compute and compare radiation patterns from E-plane and H-plane pyramidal horn antennas.<>