Scanning and impedance properties of TEM horn arrays for transient radiation

A general concept for ultrawide-band array design using interconnected transverse electromagnetic (TEM) horns is described. At high frequencies (wavelength small compared to unit cell dimensions), the mutual coupling between elements is small and, consequently, the input impedance depends only on the lattice dimensions and not on either scan angle or frequency. At low frequencies (wavelength large compared to unit cell dimensions), the mutual coupling is purposefully made large, by interconnecting the elements to maximize the low-frequency performance. This paper presents the results of analyses using a periodic hybrid finite-element approach to calculate input impedance and scanning performance of generic TEM horn arrays, The limiting case, the planar bicone, is shown to have the frequency-independent property of a self-complementary antenna, making it a useful case for establishing the effects of feed region geometry. Although it radiates bidirectionally, it has the interesting property that its broadside-scan frequency response in the array environment is absolutely Bat up to the grating lobe onset limit. A TEM horn array is more unidirectional, but as a consequence suffers both oscillatory variations in the input impedance with frequency and increased limits on minimum achievable rise time.