Reduced-volume horn antennas with integrated high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces

Due to the miniaturization of wireless systems, antennas are being reduced in volume and placed in close proximity to other system elements. In these configurations novel topologies are required to both maximize gain and minimize near-field coupling. Antennas incorporating Sievenpiper high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces are capable of providing such performance improvements and thus enabling reductions in volume and flexible methods of deployment. In the following work high-impedance surfaces are utilized as the walls of a rectangular horn antenna. The goal is to allow the antenna to function as a TEM waveguide at dimensions that would otherwise be below the TE_1,0 cutoff frequency, thus enabling a reduction in antenna volume. Four horn antenna configurations comprised of probe-fed rectangular waveguides with high-impedance surfaces as sides are designed and measured.