Feed horn
Videos
A feed horn is a small horn antenna used to couple a waveguide to e.g. a parabolic dish antenna or offset dish antenna for reception or transmission of microwaves. A typical application is the use for
Feed horn with concentric rings (left) and LNB (right) on a Hughes DirecWay home satellite dish.
An LNBF (LNB with integrated feed horn) that has been cut into two. Visible is the scalar horn antenna (the funnel with concentric rings), which couples the microwave beam into a short waveguide (the tube connecting the feed horn to the LNB electronics part of the LNBF).
Feed horn (right) on a military radar antenna. The feed horn must be shaped to produce a radiation pattern tailored to adequately illuminate the reflector.
A low-noise block downconverter is the receiving device mounted on satellite dishes used for satellite TV reception, which collects the radio waves from the dish and converts them to a signal which is
Feed horn
…the use for satellite television reception with a satellite dish. In that case the feed horn can either be a separate part used together with e.g. a "low-noise block downconverter" (LNB), or more typically today is integrated into a "low-noise block feedhorn" (LNBF). The feed horn minimizes the mismatch loss between the antenna…
A disassembled LNB. A waveguide carrying the microwave signal from the external dish antenna enters at the hole in the center, where two pins act as internal antennas (for two different polarizations). Here the microwave signal is coupled into microstrips on the LNB's circuit board, in order for the RF signal to be amplified and downconverted into lower frequencies, which are output at the two F connector sockets at the bottom.
Viewing of the pin and the horn antenna in a low-noise block downconverter
Ku-band linear-polarized LNBF