Numerical Calibration of Standard Gain Horns and OEWG Probes
Author: Donald G. Bodnar
Publication: AMTA 2009
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
The gain-transfer technique is the most commonly used antenna gain measurement method and involves the comparison of the AUT gain to that of another antenna with known gain. At microwave frequencies and above, special pyramidal horn antennas known as standard-gain horns are universally accepted as the gain standard of choice. A design method and gain curves for these horns were developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory in 1954. This paper examines the ability of modern numerical electromagnetic modeling to predict the gain of these horns and possibly achieve greater accuracy than with the NRL approach.
Similar computational electromagnetic modeling is applied to predict the gain and pattern of open-ended waveguide probes which are used in near-field antenna measurements. This approach provides data for probes that are not available in the literature.