High Performance Corrugated Feed Horns for Space Applications at Millimetre Wavelengths

We report on the design fabrication and testing of a set of high performance corrugated feed horns at 30, 70, and 100 GHz, built as advanced prototypes for the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the ESA Planck mission. The electromagnetic designs include linear (100 GHz) and dual shaped (30 and 70 GHz) profiles. Fabrication has been achieved by direct machining at 30 GHz and by electro-formation at higher frequencies. The measured performances on side lobe and return loss meet the stringent Planck requirements over the large (20%) instrument bandwidth. Moreover, the advantage in terms of main lobe shape and side lobe levels of the dual profiled designs has been demonstrated.