What is "horn antenna"

Antenna \An*ten"na\, n.; pl. Antenn[ae]. [L. antenna sail-yard; NL., a feeler, horn of an insect.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) A movable, articulated organ of sensation, attached to the heads of insects and Crustacea. There are two in the former, and usually four in the latter. They are used as organs of touch, and in some species of Crustacea the cavity of the ear is situated near the basal joint. In insects, they are popularly called horns, and also feelers. The term in also applied to similar organs on the heads of other arthropods and of annelids.

2. (Electronics) A metallic device, variously shaped, designed for the purpose of either transmitting or receiving radio waves, as for radio or television broadcasting, or for transmitting communication signals. Some types are: whip antenna, antenna tower, horn antenna, dish antenna, directional antenna and rabbit ears. See transmitter, receiver.

n. (context radio English) A microwave antenna consisting of an open waveguide of increasing size towards the aperture

A horn antenna or microwave horn is an antenna that consists of a flaring metal waveguide shaped like a horn to direct radio waves in a beam. Horns are widely used as antennas at UHF and microwave frequencies, above 300 MHz. They are used as feed antennas (called feed horns) for larger antenna structures such as parabolic antennas, as standard calibration antennas to measure the gain of other antennas, and as directive antennas for such devices as radar guns, automatic door openers, and microwave radiometers. Their advantages are moderate directivity, low standing wave ratio (SWR), broad bandwidth, and simple construction and adjustment.

One of the first horn antennas was constructed in 1897 by Indian radio researcher Jagadish Chandra Bose in his pioneering experiments with microwaves. In the 1930s the first experimental research (Southworth and Barrow, 1936) and theoretical analysis (Barrow and Chu, 1939) of horns as antennas was done. The development of radar in World War 2 stimulated horn research to design feed horns for radar antennas. The corrugated horn invented by Kay in 1962 has become widely used as a feed horn for microwave antennas such as satellite dishes and radio telescopes.

An advantage of horn antennas is that since they have no resonant elements, they can operate over a wide range of frequencies, a wide bandwidth. The usable bandwidth of horn antennas is typically of the order of 10:1, and can be up to 20:1 (for example allowing it to operate from 1 GHz to 20 GHz). The input impedance is slowly varying over this wide frequency range, allowing low voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) over the bandwidth. The gain of horn antennas ranges up to 25 dBi, with 10 - 20 dBi being typical.