Compact ultrawideband beam-steering horn antenna

A novel horn antenna fed by a Tightly Coupled Dipole Array (TCDA) is presented. Unlike a conventional horn, the proposed “TCDA-horn” allows for beamforming and achieves high gain with far fewer feeds than a typical array. This implies realization of a high gain scanned beam with far fewer T/R modules and a simpler feed network, dramatically reducing cost and complexity. Compared to conventional horns, the proposed TCDA-horn is much more compact (<; 50% as long) and exhibits lower sidelobes. The given design operates over a 3 : 1 impedance bandwidth, making it suitable for wideband applications.