Design of TEM horn antennas for impulse radar

Abstract

As it is well known, TEM horns are antennas that can achieve wideband characteristics over multiple decades. This special characteristic of these antennas makes them really attractive for wideband radar/communication systems, where short time-domain pulses of a very wide frequency range are employed. Although these antennas have been investigated by a number of researchers over the last 25 years, as far as we known, there is very limited analysis and design guidelines available. In this paper, the TEM horn antenna has been investigated using the multiple quarter-wavelength transformer technique, which can be served as a design guideline. Antennas have been designed, made and tested. Good measurement results have demonstrated the usefulness of this technique.