Performance Enhancement of Small Aperture Horn Antenna by Three Dimensional Printable Prototype

The three dimensional printable antenna prototype is proposed for smaller aperture feed horn source. It shows an improvement of about 3 dBi in directivity and gain of feed source which is able to decrease SLL to -17.2 dB at design frequency of 12 GHz. The dimensions of considered horn feed is 2.6λ×1.6λ×4λ, where the designed proposed prototype is of 3λ×3λ×1.5λ. The distance between feed horn aperture and proposed prototype is 12.5 mm (0.5λ), which is able to correct the phase variation from 170.41° to 20.47° where the former phase value is for horn source only and later is the phase value as obtained after the placement of proposed prototype above the feed horn that is noted at 5 mm (0.2λ) above the upper surface of designed prototype. The 3dB angular width is decreased from 30.9° to 17.7° after keeping the designed prototype above the feed horn source.