US Patent 7193578 Horn antenna array and methods for fabrication thereof

A method for making a horn antenna array includes the steps of making first and second equal-size printed-circuit half-horn-elements, and offset-juxtaposing element pairs to make horn elements having a dielectric lip or step. A ground plane defining mutually intersecting crossed slot sets is loaded with horn elements with their lips interlocking near the slot crossings, to define the horn antenna array. The horn elements can be fed by pins extending through portions of the ground plane and into an aperture adjacent the feed elements of the horn elements. Electrical connections are made by fusion joining after the array is assembled.