Hybrid horn for dual Ka-band communications

• US 6,522,306 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2001
• Issued: 02/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Maxar Space LLC (Galileo Parent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Space Systems/Loral Incorporated (Loral Space and Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ersoy, Levent, Parrikar, Rajan P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Tan
• Application Number:
  US10/036,347
• Time in Patent Office: 487 Days
• Field of Search: 343/771, 343/786, 333/21.R, 333/239, 333/242, 333/251
• US Class Current: 343/786
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 13/0216 Dual-depth corrugated horns

Abstract

A Ka-band horn for transmitting and receiving information between a ground station and a satelitte includes three sections. The throat segment of the horn is adapted for coupling to a feed and includes circular, alternating grooves and webs that are of a widening type created by linearly increasing the width of the grooves in the direction of the horn'"'"'s aperture. The throat corrugations are for matching the impedance of adjacent sections of the horn. A middle segment includes an up-angle flare section and a down-angle flare section each having dual depth corrugations that enable the horn to achieve a near-HE11 mode at the aperture of the horn. The final segment of the horn is a truncated, smooth-walled, cone.

Claims

1. A hybrid corrugated horn for dual band operation at a selected frequency band wherein a window at one end of the band is provided for transmitting information and a window at a second end of the band is provided for receiving information, the horn comprising the following elements considered in combination with one another:

a throat segment including circular corrugations that increase linearly in pitch for frequency matching within the transmit and receive windows of the selected band and for input impedance match;

a middle segment including two conical sub-sections of dual-depth circular corrugations wherein a first conical sub-section flares up in angle and a second conical sub-section flares down in angle to optimize sending and receiving of information within the transmitting and receiving windows of the selected band; and

a final segment including a smooth-wall, truncated circular cone section having a minor circumference and area for mating with the circumference and area of a last groove of the second flared section of the middle segment of the horn and a major circumference and area that matches the circumference and area of a last web within the horn for radiating modulated energy into space and for receiving modulated energy from space to interchange information.

2. The horn of claim 1 wherein a frequency guard band exists between the window at a first end of the selected frequency band and the window at a second end of the selected frequency band.

3. The horn of claim 1, wherein a waveguide feed is coupled to the throat segment of the horn.

4. The horn of claim 1, wherein the circular corrugations of the throat segment of the horn include alternating grooves and webs wherein the radii of the grooves and of the webs are held constant within the throat segment wherein the dual depth circular corrugations are formed by assigning a larger radius to either the grooves or to the webs.

5. The horn of claim 4 wherein a larger fixed radius is assigned to the grooves than is assigned to the webs.

6. The horn of claim 5, wherein the widths of the grooves increase linearly in the direction of the aperture of the horn while the widths of the webs remain a constant dimension that is substantially the same as the largest groove width within the throat segment of the horn.

7. The horn of claim 1, wherein the up-angle flared subsection of the middle segment of the horn is formed by linearly increasing the radii of the grooves and webs, linearly increasing the width of the grooves and continuing the fixed widths of the webs within the throat into the up-angle flared subsection.

8. The horn of claim 7, wherein the down-angle flared subsection of the middle segment of the horn is formed by continuing to linearly expand the radii of the grooves and webs and holding the widths of the grooves to a fixed width dimension nearly five-times the width of the webs.

9. The horn of claim 8, wherein the flare of the final segment continues the flare angle of the down-angle flare section of the middle segment of the horn.

10. A method for transmitting and receiving information with a conical, corrugated horn wherein information is transmitted within a first window at one end of a selected frequency band and wherein information is received within a second window of the selected frequency band, the method comprising:

creating dual depth corrugations within a throat segment of the horn by setting radii of grooves and webs within the throat segment to first and second fixed dimensions;

setting the pitch of the dual depth corrugations within the throat segment by increasing linearly the width of the grooves in the direction of an aperture of the horn and by holding the width of the webs within the throat segment to a fixed dimension for matching transmit signal and receive signal frequencies to the first and second windows of the Ka-band and for matching the impedance of the throat segment to the impedance of a circular wave guide feed;

creating an up-angle, conical flare section within a middle segment of the horn by increasing linearly both the radii of the grooves and webs in the direction of the aperture of the horn wherein the up-angle slope of the grooves is greater than that of the webs;

creating a pitch of the up-angle conical flare section by increasing linearly the widths of the grooves and holding the widths of the webs to a fixed width dimension;

creating a down-angle, conical flare section within the middle segment of the horn by continuing to increase linearly the radii of the grooves and webs in the direction of the aperture of the horn at radii dimensions that are larger than those within the up-angle conical flare section and by holding the widths of the grooves and webs to fixed dimensions wherein the widths of the webs are multiple times smaller than the widths of the grooves; and

adding a final smooth-wall, truncated cone segment to the middle segment of the horn, the final segment including a minor circumference and area for mating with the circumference of the down-angle portion of the middle segment of the horn and a major circumference and area comprising the horn aperture for radiating modulated energy into space and for receiving modulated energy from space.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the major circumference and area of the final segment is substantially the same as a circumference and area of the last web within the middle segment of the horn.

12. The method of claim 10 further including making circular corrugations within the horn by making the radii of the grooves larger than the radii of the webs.

13. The method of claim 10 further including making circular corrugations within the horn by making the radii of the webs larger than the radii of the grooves.

14. The method of claim 10 further including using a guard band within the Ka-band located between the send and receive window portions of the Ka-band.

15. The method of claim 10 further including coupling a waveguide feed to the throat segment of the horn.

16. A multi-segment microwave horn for operating within a first window of a selected frequency band for transmitting information to a communication target and a second window within the selected frequency band, separated by a guard band from the first band, for receiving information from a communication target, the horn comprising the following elements considered in combination with one another:

a circular throat segment including alternating grooves and webs having linearly increasing groove widths toward a horn aperture for wide-band impedance matching among adjacent segments;

a circular middle segment including an up-angle flare section and a down-angle flare section each having dual depth corrugations for optimizing the reception and transmission of information through the horn including creating a near-HE₁₁ mode; and

a final segment including a truncated section having a minor circumference and area that matches a circumference and area of a last groove of the dual depth corrugations and a major circumference that matches a circumference and area of a last web of the dual depth corrugations and that defines the horn aperture such that the final segment recovers aperture area lost due to the dual depth corrugations.

17. A method for operating a horn within a first window of a selected frequency range for transmitting information to a communication target and a second window within a selected frequency range, separated by a guard band from the first band, for receiving information from a communication target, the method comprising:

creating a circular throat segment including alternating grooves and webs having linearly increasing groove widths toward a horn aperture for wide-band impedance matching among adjacent segments;

creating a circular middle segment including an up-angle flare section and a down-angle flare section each having dual depth corrugations for optimizing the reception and transmission of information through the horn including creating a near-HE₁₁ mode; and

creating a final segment including a truncated section having a minor circumference and area that matches the circumference and area of a last groove of the dual depth corrugations and a major circumference and area that matches the circumference and area of a last web of the dial depth corrugations and defining the horn aperture such that the final segment recovers aperture area lost due to the dual depth corrugations.