BOXHORN ARRAY ARCHITECTURE USING FOLDED JUNCTIONS

摘要

An inverted boxhorn antenna array (10) comprising a power divider (11) that is constructed from a single metal piece and a flat metal sheet that is fastened to a rear surface of the power divider. The power divider is fabricated using a variety of waveguide junctions (14-16) coupled between substantially identical inverted boxhorn subarrays (20). The junctions includes a central magic tee junction (14) for coupling energy from an input port (12a) into the power divider. Alternating folded shunt and folded series tee junctions (15, 16) are used to transfer power coupled by way of the central series junction to the inverted boxhorn subarrays. Specially dimensioned folded shunt and series tee junctions are used in the inverted boxhorn subarrays. Waveguide matched loads (27) are bonded in waveguides between each of the inverted boxhorn radiators of the subarrays. A fully functional antenna assembly (30) includes a radome cover (18b), a quadrature correction plate (18a), and a twist polarizer (18c) disposed in front of radiating elements (13) of the inverted boxhorn antenna array.