Pulse radiation antenna fed with a face-to-face TEM horn

Greater interest in utilizing antenna systems for electromagnetic compatibility and target identification applications has been focused on the antenna´s short pulse or ultrawideband (UWB) operation capabilities. One typical configuration for realizing a UWB antenna is to use a biconical TEM launcher as the feed to illuminate a parabolic reflector. However, the biconical TEM launcher has a greater aperture blockage. We introduce a novel antenna configuration with a modified face-to-face TEM horn feed. Generally, the face-to-face TEM horn will result in serious aperture blockage. To reduce the aperture blockage, quite a large part of the face-to-face horn is replaced by a metal wire frame. In practice, the modified feed consists of a mode convertor, a small TEM horn cascaded with a metal wire frame. The antenna is proven to be effective for high power subnanosecond pulse radiation.