OPTIMAL DESIGN OF A KU/KA-BAND WIDE-FLARE-ANGLE CORRUGATED HORN USING THE DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION ALGORITHM

A novel wide-flare-angle corrugated horn covering the full Ku/Ka satellite communication frequency bands is designed and optimized. In order to satisfy the rigorous bandwidth requirements, a spline-profiled smooth section and a corrugated section with ring-loaded slots are introduced into the wide-flare-angle horn design. Instead of the “trial-and-error” method, the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is employed to obtain the optimum dimensions of the proposed horn. A prototype of the optimized horn is constructed and measured. Both simulated and measured results show that the proposed horn has good radiation and impedance performance. The performance of the horn is also demonstrated as a feed in a typical dual-reflector antenna. Simulation results show that the overall antenna system meets the usual performance requirements.