Design of a broadband Ku-band lens horn antenna for SAR applications

A broadband Ku-band lens horn antenna for airborne SAR applications is presented in the paper. Several design equations, which create the geometric relation between the lens and the horn, are deduced, so the independent design variables are reduced, and the parametric sweep results can be obtained quickly in HFSS. Simulated results show that the antenna is less than 200mm in height, and its gain is more than 26dB, the half-power beam width is more than 6^o and 8.4^o in E-and H-plane respectively, the side-lobe level is below -20dB and the cross polarization level is below -25dB in the frequency range from 13.2GHz to 18GHz.