Spherical wave blockage in reflector antennas

The effects of the spherical wave blockage in reflector antennas is investigated. This problem is likely to occur in axially symmetrical feed antennas of single- and dual-reflector type in both single- and dual-reflector configurations, owing to the presence of primary feeds and their supports including struts that are normally placed between the primary source and the main reflector. The main reflector blockage due to large obstacles is estimated by the well-known null-field technique that employs flat polygonal plate models of the masking structures to define the obscured area. Although this same approach may be used to predict the spherical wave blockage due to the struts, a more rigorous but yet efficient technique is also employed, which consists of superimposing to the primary field the high-frequency scattered field from the struts. This field is calculated by using scattering coefficients that are derived by locally approximating the actual structure, by an infinite circular cylinder. This latter formulation is compared with the null-field technique and validated by an experimental campaign. The measurement setup is particularly useful for isolating spherical wave-blockage effects. It consists of a single-reflector offset antenna where a single strut is mounted with its axis parallel to that of the focusing parabola, thus, practically enforcing the plane wave blockage to vanish. Comparisons with the measurements have shown that the null-field approach is adequate for predicting the secondary pattern for large polygonal obstacle, but it is unsatisfactory to treat the strut blockage. It is found that this latter can be successfully described with the more rigorous high-frequency approach     

An E-field integral equation solution for the radiationfrom reflector antennas with struts

The E-field integral equation is applied to rotationally symmetric reflector antennas with struts. Current is allowed to flow on all the reflector surfaces and continuity is enforced at the conductor junctions. Radiation patterns are presented for a small paraboloid antenna, and the effects of the struts are clearly defined. These include the strut cone radiation, pattern asymmetries introduced by the struts, and gain loss and sidelobe level changes     

Effect of support strut diffraction on reflector surface profile assessment

The phase-imaging properties of microwave holographic processing are used to provide an inward-looking reconstruction of support strut diffraction and its effect on reflector surface profile assessment. Measured near-field data are employed to illustrate the contribution made by the support strut geometry to the apparent profile error for a 2.5 m reflector antenna operating at 10 GHz. The relative significance of real profile errors and those deriving from strut effects are studied by using a diffraction model. It is concluded that certain configurations of support struts can give rise to significant modification of the effective profile error distribution.     

Losses, sidelobes, and cross polarization caused by feed-supportstruts in reflector antennas: design curves

In a symmetrical reflector antenna the feed system and its support struts block the aperture and thereby deteriorate the radiation characteristics. Simple design curves are presented for the efficiency reduction, the sidelobe levels, and the cross polarization caused by strut blockage. The results are obtained from an analytical study that includes the induced field ratio (IFR) of the struts. The most significant IFR values for struts with circular cross section are calculated and plotted in a way which makes them easy to use as design curves. The use of the design curves is demonstrated by an example     

Radiation cones from feed-support struts of symmetric paraboloidal antennas

Wide-angle radiation associated with the plane-wave component of the field in the focal space of a paraboloidal reflector is computed by integrating the currents induced on the feed-support struts. This component of radiation is locally maximum on radiation cones which lie along the axis of each strut. Comparison with data measured for the Dwingeloo radio telescope indicates good agreement for the position, width, and intensity of these cones, even at levels 50 dB below the peak of the main beam.     

High efficiency and low sidelobe design for a large aperture offset reflector antenna

A design method giving high efficiency and low sidelobes is discussed for large aperture offset reflector antennas. A new reflector shaping technique using the subreflector and the beam waveguide reflector with the parabolic main reflector is proposed to simplify the main reflector manufacturing process. The effectiveness of the technique is confirmed by the model experiments. One problem with this reflector shaping technique is that the subreflector edge level cannot be controlled independently of the main reflector edge level. By investigating the relation between the gain reduction and the subreflector edge level, which affects the wide-angle sidelobe levels, the realizable characteristics of antennas are studied. In order to decrease the subreflector edge level without reducing the aperture efficiency, a technique using an extended reflector is also proposed. Its effectiveness is shown by theoretical and experimental investigations.     

Analysis of the radiation patterns of reflector antennas

The development and application of a numerical technique for the rapid calculation of the far-field radiation patterns of a reflector antenna from either a measured or computed feed pattern are reported. The reflector is defined by the intersection of a cone with any surface of revolution or an offset sector of any surface of revolution. The feed is assumed to be linearly polarized and can have an arbitrary location. Both the copolarized and the cross polarized reflector radiation patterns are computed. Calculations using the technique compare closely with measured radiation patterns of a waveguide-fed offset parabolic reflector. The unique features of this technique are the freedom from restrictive feed assumptions and the numerical methods used in preparing the aperture plane electric field data for integration.     

A Novel Beam Squint Compensation Technique for Circularly Polarized Conic-Section Reflector Antennas

Beam squint generally exists in offset reflector antennas with circularly polarized feeds. It is manifested by a small beam shift of the radiation pattern in the plane perpendicular to the principal offset plane, which can significantly affect the beam pointing accuracy. In this paper a practical and widely applicable compensation technique for the beam squint is proposed. Simulation results show that a small lateral feed displacement in the perpendicular plane can effectively minimize or eliminate the linear phase shift caused by the depolarization effect, thus compensating for the beam squint effect. This is in practice very useful for offset reflector antennas where the previously suggested method based on feed tilting may not be proper. A simple formula is derived to quickly estimate the optimal feed displacement for both right- and left-hand circularly polarized feeds. Three representative examples: a single offset parabolic reflector, a suboptimal offset Cassegrain reflector, and an axially symmetric Cassegrain reflector with an off-focus feed, are presented to validate the proposed method. Satisfactory results are achieved for all three examples.      

Pattern synthesis of the offset reflector antenna system with lesscomplicated phased array feed

The performance degradation of an offset reflector antenna with off-axis scanning feed and distorted reflector surface can be improved by using a phased array feed. Generally, both analog attenuators and phase shifters are used in phased array feed. Yet, it seems to make the feed system very complicated. In this paper, a phase-only gradient search (POGS) algorithm is developed to optimize the performance of offset reflector antenna systems using phased array feed that is equipped with phase shifters only. This technique not only can greatly simplify the complexity of phased array feed, but also can provide the reflector antenna with better antenna gain and sidelobe level control capability. Simulation and experimental results are presented to illustrate the excellent performance of offset reflector, with limited beam scanning capability, can be obtained by using this less complicated phased array feed     

偏置抛物面天线圆极化版图成形波束工程理论的研究

本文根据矩形波导中隔片式圆极化器传输波型的渐变过程,导出了圆极化馈源的辐射场公式,并利用R.Mittra等作者提出的物理光学辐射积分Jacobi-Bessel级数展开方法对偏置抛物面天线圆极化版图成形波束的工程理论进行了研究。它包括:圆极化馈源辐射场公式;偏置抛物面电流等效投影孔径布分;二次辐射场计算公式;版图成形波束等效各向同性辐射功率(EIRP)工程计算公式;天线坐标、版图经纬度坐标与卫星坐标之间的变换关系;给出了七元馈源阵成形的我国西部版图圆极化波束的数值结果,其EIRP等电平曲线是计算机自动打印的,本文研究的理论方法可作为研制版图成形波束天线各阶段的基本分析工具。     

Aperture blockage in reflector antennas

The aperture blockage effects on both the copolarized and the cross polarized components of the front-hemisphere pattern of a typical quadrupod supported primary-feed paraboloidal reflector antenna are evaluated. A detailed numerical model of the scattering process which involves the feed, the feed supporting struts, and the reflector itself is employed to compute the blockage effect.     

Compact antenna test range reflector edge treatment

The physical optics technique is used to compare the performance of single offset compact antenna test ranges with different reflector edge treatments and rim shapes. A comparison between reflector edge taper and rim serrations in controlling edge diffraction is demonstrated     

Sectoral hoghorn: a new form of line feed for spherical reflector aerials

A sectoral hoghorn may be used as a line feed to correct spherical aberration in an offset spherical reflector. The bandwidth of this type of feed is considerably greater than that of other line feeds, and the construction is simple. The results of measurements on a prototype X band hoghorn are reported, and a technique for reducing the area of spherical reflector required for a given scan angle is described.     

Subreflector extension for improved efficiencies in Cassegrain antennas--GTD/PO analysis

Both offset and symmetric Cassegrain reflector antennas are used in satellite and ground communication systems. It is known that the subreflector diffraction can degrade the performance of these reflectors. A geometrical theory of diffraction/physical optics (GTD/PO) analysis technique is used to investigate the improving effects of the extended subreflector, beyond its optical rim, on the reflector efficiency and farfield patterns. Representative numerical results are shown for an offset Cassegrain reflector antenna with different feed illumination tapers and subreflector extensions. It is observed that for subreflector extensions as small as1 lambdanoticeable improvements in the overall efficiencies can be expected. Useful design data are generated for the efficiency curves and far-field patterns.     

Depolarization properties of offset reflector antennas

The cross polarized radiation for linearly polarized excitation and the beam displacement for circularly polarized excitation have been investigated for offset reflector antennas. Numerical calculations are given to illustrate the dependence upon the angletheta_{0}between the feed axis and the reflector axis as well as upon the half-angletheta_{c}subtended at the focus by the reflector. In the casetheta_{0} = theta_{c} = 45deg, measured results have been obtained for both linearly and circularly polarized excitations with a dual mode feed illuminating an offset paraboloid. The cross polarized radiation of horn reflector and open Cassegrainian antennas rises sharply to rather high values off the beam axis; however, in general, the maximum cross polarized radiation of offset reflector antennas can be made small by using a small angle between the feed and reflector axes. The cross polarization caused by offset is compared with that caused by an unbalanced feed pattern. The effect of the longitudinal current distribution and of departure of the surface from a paraboloid on cross polarization are also examined. The clarification of these cross polarization properties is found to be valuable in the design of reflector antennas.     

Sidelobe level reduction by improvement of strut shape

From the viewpoint of effective utilization of both the geostationary orbit and the frequency spectrum in the satellite communication system, it is strongly required of an earth station antenna to have low sidelobe characteristics in order to minimize the interference from/to the adjacent satellite and the terrestrial microwave links. The reference diagram of the sidelobe gain for a large antenna recommnended by International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) is drawn as follows:G = 32-25 log thetadBi (1 deg leq theta leq 48deg);G = -10dBi (theta > 48deg), whereGis the sidelobe gain relative to an isotropic antenna andthetais an offset angle from the main lobe axis in degrees. In the case of an axisymmetrical Cassegrain antenna operating with circular polarization, the level of the cross-polar sidelobe due to diffraction by the subreflector support struts exceeds that shown in the above reference diagram. By introduction of a new type of strut, the sidelobe gain can be suppressed below that shown in the CCIR reference diagram. In this article, a design method based on geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) for improving the strut shape is presented. The wide-angle sidelobe gain of the standard "A" earth station antenna, installed in Yamaguchi, Japan, being equipped with the improved strut, can meet that shown in the CCIR reference diagram in all directions for both co- and cross-polar polarizations in the 6 GHz band.     

Some important geometrical features of conic-section-generated offset refelector antennas

Geometrical characteristics of conic-section-generated offset reflectors are studied in a unified fashion. Some unique geometrical features of the reflector rim constructed from the intersection of the reflector surface and a cone or cylinder are explored in detail. It is found that the intersection curve (rim) of the rotationally generated conic-section reflector surface and a circular cone with its tip at the focal point is always a planar curve and has a circular projection on the focal plane only for the offset parabolic reflector. Furthermore, in this case, the line going through the center of the circle, parallel to the focal axis, and the central axis of the cone do not intersect the reflector surface at the same point. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate some unique features of offset parabolic reflectors.     

Offset parabolic reflector antennas

The paper provides a tutorial review of a number of offset parabolic reflector configurations including both single and double-reflector geometries. The author commences by describing some basic techniques which can be applied to predict the vector radiation fields and provides some indication of the validity of these methods. The formulation of a relatively simple analytical model for the offset reflector antenna is described based upon the physical-optics approximation. The electrical performance of the single-offset reflector is examined by comparison of predicted and measured data. The particular problems arising from the choice of polarisation and reflector dimensions are highlighted, and some practical applications involving multiplebeams, shaped and contoured beams, monopulse tracking and low sidelobes are briefly reviewed. Practical primary-feeds for offset-reflector antennas are discussed and the matched-feed concept is outlined, the matching of the electric fields in the primary-feed aperture to the reflector focal fields being illustrated. The advantages and disadvantages of dual-reflector antennas are then examined, with particular emphasis upon the open Cassegrainian configuration and the optimised doubleoffset configuration which offers, in principle, both freedom from blockage and low levels of cross-polarised radiation.     

Nonuniform sampling techniques for antenna applications

Recent investigations have demonstrated that uniform sampling techniques can be effectively applied for construction of far-field patterns of antennas. There are, however, many circumstances for which it may not be practical to directly utilize uniform sampling techniques. A two-dimensional sampling technique which can employ irregularly (nonuniformly) spaced samples (amplitude and phase) in order to generate the complete far-field patterns is presented. The technique implements a matrix inversion algorithm which depends only on the nonuniform sampled data point locations and with no dependence on the actual field values at these points. A powerful simulation algorithm is presented to allow a real-life simulation of many reflector/feed configurations and to determine the usefulness of the nonuniform sampling technique for the co-polar and cross-polar patterns. Additionally, an overlapped window concept and a generalized error simulation model are discussed to identify the stability of the technique for recovering the field data among the nonuniform sampled data. Numerical results are tailored for the pattern reconstruction of a 20-m offset reflector antenna operating atL-band. This reflector is planned to be used in a proposed measurement concept of large antennas aboard the space shuttle, whereby it would be almost impractical to accurately control the movement of the shuttle with respect to the radio frequency (RF) source in prescribed directions in order to generate uniform (u, v) sampled points. Also, application of the nonuniform sampling technique to patterns obtained using near-field measured data is demonstrated. Finally, results of an actual far-field measurement are presented for the construction of patterns of a reflector antenna from a set of nonuniformly distributed measured amplitude and phase data.