The Need for Narrow Beamwidth in Ridged Horn Antennas for UAV-Based In-situ Measurements of Radars and Communication Systems

In this paper, a lens-integrated wideband ridged horn antenna is presented for UAV based in-situ characterization of radars and communication systems. The proposed customized antenna operates from 2 GHz to 12 GHz covering the commonly used radar bands for weather and defense applications. Compared to the narrowband and bulky horn antenna, the proposed lens-integrated ridged horn antenna is wideband, low weight, and compact in size that make it suitable for UAV based measurements. Using a single wideband probe for outdoor in-situ measurements gets rid of installing and re-calibration of multiple probes for meteorology measurements. The main limitation of the commercially available ridged horn antenna is, it suffers from wider H-plane beamwidth performance at low frequencies. The proposed lens integration technique reduces the beamwidth in the H-plane by 67% (for instance at 3 GHz), that also helps in achieving near-symmetry in the patterns.