Experimental and theoretical study of novel grooved horn antenna

Horn antennas play a very important role in microwave engineering. To meet different kinds of need, several types of horn including conical, pyramidal, ridge-loaded, corrugated horns, etc. have been developed and studied extensively. These horns can be classified as pure mode or multi-mode horns due to the field distribution (waveguide mode) on the apertures. In this paper, a new grooved type of horn with a cross-section similar to a groove guide is presented. Initial work shows that such horns have the advantages of more flexible design and pure mode operation and hence excitation is easy. Various radiation patterns can be obtained by choosing appropriate cross-section shape and size.