Design and development of smooth wall spline profiled horn antenna for SATCOM application at Ku band

In this paper, a design of high gain smooth wall spline profiled horn antenna is discussed and developed for Ku band frequency range of 10.7GHz-11.45GHz for transmit (Tx) and 12.75GHz-13.25GHz for receive (Rx) band of communication satellite at geostationary orbit. The detailed design procedure is discussed for achieving required edge of coverage gain. The horn is designed, simulated, fabricated and integrated with slot coupled orthomode transducer (OMT) for dual linear polarization applications. The RF characterizations of the feed chain has been carried out, in which the return loss better than 19dB as well as port-to-port isolation better than 40dB of the OMT is obtained in the measurement; moreover pattern measurement is also performed in anechoic chamber. The edge of coverage (2.67
⁰
half-cone angle) gain better than 24dBi and cross-pol better than 30dB within the coverage region is obtained in the measurement.