Thread: Which design software suitable for Horn Antenna design?

Dear Fellows,

[align=justify:4428cb2ee8]I am working on the design of a horn antenna working around 8 to 9 GHz of frequency range. Can u recommmend me some antenna design softwares where I can design Horn antenna, simulation can be done, its radiation pattern, its beamwidth, its gain can shown on the software. Waiting for an early reply.[/align:4428cb2ee8]
Thanking You

If this is a simple design, there are many cook book formulas and examples.

Good programme for such problems is HFSS from Ansoft. With this product you can find some Ноrn Antenna examples.

Most of the 3D EM-simulators can be used for this problem:
@nsoft H/F/S/S
CST MWS
IE3D
FEKO
FEML@b
and others.

Best regards,
Kit-the-great

The best softwares for horn design in commerce in my opinion are WASP-NET or MICIAN.

But the MICIAN and WASP-NET works only with simple-aperture-type horns. For ex. the 'flared-out' corrugated horn with grooved aperture disk can't be simulated with this progs.

I am not sure about MICIAN but with WASP-NET it is possible simulate grooved aperture because it uses Mom metod to analise the exetrnal of the horn.

Firsly you must know theory very well, it's not so easy like you think. Here you excellent :sm28: book http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/~orfanidi/ewa , in chapter 17 is explained horn antenna with Matlab examples. Now you can calculate radiation patern.
For impedance analyze you need EM softwer, Wipl-D is the best for problems like this but it's a comercial program.
Here you one good free program 4nec2 on http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu/swindex.html
Excitation monopole is in the centre of waveguide and you'll have reactance abot 100oms, with moving monopole reactanse can be neutalized.

To yuyu: I means the corrugation around the horn, that produce the surface waves. Also, I don't understand, how to simulate the lens in horn aperture with WASP-Net ?

You may like to use hfss to try....

i think hf$$ is very good in 3d electromagnetic simulation ,and very good accuracy , but time consuming , and need huge memory

There are some accurate and exaustive software collected and edited by Cayrle Sletten. They are old fashioned DOS and Fortran software, but i think they are now for free. Try to ask directly to Mr. Sletten, he is now retaired, find it's home page on Internet.
The soft. collection may calculate co-Pattern, cross-patten, Phase center, etc. and also may design the corrugations mechanical dimensions. the soft. involve the design of both corrugated or smooth wall conical or piramidal horns.

You can use SABOR -Leandro de Haro (leandro@gr.ssr.upm.es). :D

I think you can use many different programs to analyze horn antennas.
HFSS is probably tempting with its interface, but it is very time and memory consuming, at least for the projects I've done with it.

There are several free programs, but the only problem is that you don't get technical support and quality manuals, so you would spend a lot of time to learn how to use those programs.

I recommend WIPL-D, I am using it regularly. It is a general 3D solver, and it analyzes horns with ease. There is a professional version called WIPL-D Pro, but there is also a low-cost version that costs couple of hundred $.

Maybe I sound emotional, but WIPL-D has pulled me out of some serious design trouble in the past. By the way, I am not working for those guys, if you are wondering.

Regards,
Axel

Originally Posted by flatulent

If this is a simple design, there are many cook book formulas and examples.

Can you suggest any cookbook's for formulas? I am getting stuck

Just an example of corresponding simulation with Method of Moments: EMC Studio: Horn Antenna modeling

CST is good simulation. It is macro to help you.

CST has a graphical interface which is similar to that of HFSS and can be use in almost the same way. But CST is more suited for running simulation over a wide frequency range because the software's time domain solver runs faster with a wider frequency range.

HFSS is clearly capable of dealing with this as is noted numerous times above.

Micorwaves March 1966 has an excellent cookbook for horns "Tables Ease Horn Design"

Tom Milligan Scales for Rectangular Horns IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine Oct 2000 is another reference that may be helpful.