A design procedure for classical offset dual reflector antennaswith circular apertures

A geometrical optics procedure for designing electrically optimized classical offset dual reflector antennas with circular apertures is presented. Equations are derived that allow the size and spacing of the main and subreflectors of the antenna system, along with the feed horn subintended angle, to be used as input variables of the design procedure. The procedure, together with these equations, yields an optimized design, starting from general system requirements. The procedure is demonstrated by designing both an offset Cassegrain and an offset Gregorian antenna, and is validated by analyzing their radiation patterns using physical optics surface current integration on both the main and subreflectors     

Antennes embarquées à réflecteurs multisources

Three telecommunication satellite antennas, developed under the research and development programme of the European Space Agency, ESA, are described. The first one, operating around 1.6 GHz, is to equip advanced mobile communications satellites. It includes an 8 m unfurlable reflector and a system of multiple feeds. The influence of facets in the mesh reflector surface on the radiation patterns is discussed. The second one, for European coverage in the 10.7 to 11.7 GHz band, includes a 1.1 m offset reflector fed by 23 horns backed by a numerically machined waveguide distribution network. Performances of the antenna, with emphasis on the distribution network, are discussed. The third antenna, operating at 19 GHz, generates 0.25° low sidelobe spot beams to cover major European traffic centers. Its 4 m offset Cassegrain reflector is fed by a system of about a hundred horns. Each beam originates from a cluster of seven horns, some clusters, corresponding to closely adjacent beams, partially overlap. The design and performances of the antenna and its components are discussed in the paper.     

波束波导馈电的新型偏置近场卡塞格伦天线

提出一种新型偏置近场卡塞格伦天线,天线的主副镜均由具有圆口径的抛物面镜构成,给出了主副镜的几何参数和设计方程。采用非传统且适应高功率应用的波束波导进行馈电,天线系统（含波束波导）采用了几何光学和去极化的设计方法。根据照射锥削角和高斯束腰设计了方向图圆周对称的波纹喇叭馈源。在此馈源喇叭的基础上,根据高斯波束法得到波束波导各镜面尺寸。采用物理绕射理论对一个设计实例的方向图进行分析,证明该天线系统具有极低的交叉极化电平和旁瓣电平。     

一种星载通信混合反射面天线的设计方法

为了使星载通信天线产生1个赋形波束覆盖服务区,同时产生1个固定点波束和1个有限扫描点波束,该文提出一种由2个赋形反射面和3个馈源组成的混合反射面天线。该天线是以赋形主反射面共用为基础,等效为2副单馈源单偏置反射面天线和1副双偏置格里高利型赋形反射面天线,分别产生赋形波束、固定点波束和有限扫描点波束。通过对一副口径为1.2 m的天线各个波束进行仿真实验,赋形波束在Ku收、发频段时波束覆盖区边缘(EoC)方向性系数为27.5 dBi,固定点波束在C收、发频段时天线口径效率高于70%,通过将赋形副反射面及对应馈源横向偏焦实现Ka收、发频段的点波束在服务区内外的扫描。仿真结果表明,该混合反射面天线可实现C/Ku/Ka频段的同时通信任务。     

Designing classical offset Cassegrain or Gregorian dual-reflector antennas from combinations of prescribed geometric parameters

This paper proposes a simple procedure for the design of classical offset Cassegrain or Gregorian dual-reflector antennas from combinations of prescribed geometric parameters. This procedure has already been applied to classical Cassegrain and Gregorian antennas, to classical displaced-axis Cassegrain and Gregorian antennas, and to classical offset Dragonian antennas. The antenna systems can be fully characterized by 21 parameters, of which only five need to be provided by the antenna designer, as the remaining 16 parameters can be derived in closed form using the procedure described here. In this paper, we assume that the main reflector has a circular aperture, while the subreflector has an elliptical aperture All the antenna geometries presented satisfy the Mizugutch condition (1976), which is the geometric-optics condition for zero cross-polarized radiation. This procedure is very close to the one used for offset Dragonian systems, but all the relevant information is repeated here for completeness.     

Zooming and Scanning Gregorian Confocal Dual Reflector Antennas

The zooming and scanning capabilities of a Gregorian confocal dual reflector antenna are described. The basic antenna configuration consists of two oppositely facing paraboloidal reflectors sharing a common focal point. A planar feed array is used to illuminate the subreflector allowing the antenna to scan its beam. The resulting quadratic aberrations can be compensated by active mechanical deformation of the subreflector surface, which is based on translation, rotation and focal length adjustment. In order to reduce the complexity of the mechanical deformation, least squares fit paraboloids are defined to approximate the optimal correction surface. These best fit paraboloids considerably reduce scanning losses and pattern degradation. This work also introduces two different zooming techniques for the Gregorian confocal dual reflector antenna: the first consists of introducing a controlled quadratic path error to the main reflector aperture; and the second is based on reducing the size of the radiating aperture of the feeding array.      

A compact Q-K-band dual frequency feed horn

A millimeter-wave dual frequency circularly polarized feed for an offset reflector antenna is being developed for a portable satellite ground terminal. The two frequency bands areQ- andK-bands for transmit and receive, respectively. A compact feed design consisting of a single corrugated horn with two circular waveguide concentric openings at the horn throat is described. Good aperture efficiency and low sidelobes in both of the frequency bands are achieved.     

Computer-aided design of reflector antennas: the Green Bank RadioTelescope

This paper presents an evaluation of the electrical performance of the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) reflector antenna, operating as single- and dual-offset configurations, as well as a general overview of the GBT system. The GBT dual-offset Gregorian configuration is designed for low cross polarization (XPOL) using the dual-offset reflector antenna (DORA) synthesis package code developed by the authors. The procedure implemented in DORA to upgrade an existing main reflector to a low cross-polarized dual-offset Gregorian reflector antenna is also described in this paper. All computed patterns were obtained with the parabolic reflector analysis code (PRAC) program, also developed by the authors, and with the commercial code GRASP7. The GBT radiation patterns and performance values, which include original data not available anywhere else as far as the authors know, indicate that low XPOL performance can be achieved with a dual-offset configuration, provided that a low XPOL feed is used. The GBT configuration is employed as a case example for the aforementioned procedure. However, an effort is made to present the main conclusions as generically as possible     

A shaped single reflector offset antenna with lowcross-polarization fed by a lens horn

A novel compact primary-fed offset reflector antenna with the potential of radiating circular as well as elliptical beams with low cross-polarization, is proposed. The reflector is fed by a horn with a phase-correcting lens in the aperture. Compared to the dual-reflector offset antenna, the concept is easier to assemble and mechanically more robust. The antenna has been synthesized and analyzed by computer programs resulting from modifications of corresponding PO programs for dual-reflector offset antennas. The synthesized antenna exhibits similar cross-polarization, side-lobe level, and aperture efficiency as those of dual-reflector offset antennas, although the one-to-one correspondence between zero cross-polarization and conformal mapping from the feed to the aperture, is not exactly valid for this approach     

La synthèse d’antennes à deux réflecteurs conformés à alimentation décalée

A potentially economic method for upgrading the gain of the large earth reflector antenna Cassegrain system to a gain comparable to that obtainable with a dualshaped reflector antenna system is presented herein. It involves a redesign of only the subreflector portion of a Cassegrain antenna or the introduction of a subreflector feed system for a paraboloid. A pair of offset subreflectors are synthesized which will give a controllable high gain amplitude distribution in the aperture of the large paraboloid. The synthesis method that is used is based on an approximate formulation for an offset dual shaped high gain antenna where the geometrical optics energy was scattered from a subreflector and then from a second large reflector which reflected a uniform phase distribution. In the present offset dual shaped subreflector (DSS) antenna, the second reflection is from a smaller subreflector and it scatters a spherical wave that feeds a hyperboloid or feeds a large paraboloid directly. Excellent results are shown for the approximate synthesis of the DSS.     

Preliminary study on offset scan-corrected reflector antenna system

Preliminary study on offset shaped dual reflector antenna systems has been carried out to assess the feasibility for multibeam satellite applications. The two-dimensional offset shaped reflector antenna geometry is generated by first creating the nodal points according to a bifocal condition and then connecting the nodal points by smooth curves to form the profiles of the main and subreflectors. The three-dimensional geometry is created by body revolution. The offset geometry is obtained by properly tailoring the three-dimensional geometry. This offset shaped reflector antenna system has an inherent astigmatism which can be either fully or partially compensated. For applications requiring a scan range in azimuth more thanpm 5beamwidths, the offset shaped dual reflector antenna systems offer better scan performance (in terms of peak gains) than offset Cassegrain geometries at the expense of the performance of the on-axis beams. In elevation with a 16 beamwidth scan range, the shaped design provides 0.3 dB less scan loss than the Cassegrain design.     

An offset-fed reflector antenna with an axially symmetric main reflector

A design method for an offset-fed, dual reflector antenna (Cassegrain type or Gregorian type) system with an axisymmetric main reflector is presented. Geometrical optics (GO) and the geometrical theory of diffraction (GTD) are used to find the surface-current density on the main reflector. A modified Jacobi-Bessel series (JBS) method is used to find the far-field pattern for the physical optics (PO) integral. In the defocused mode of operation, a new technique is developed to find the reflection point on the subreflector corresponding to the defocused feed and a general field point on the main reflector. Two sample systems are designed.     

Synthesis of offset dual shaped subreflector antennas for control of Cassegrain aperture distributions

Many existing large ground reflector antennas have been designed as Cassegrain systems-i.e., paraboloid/hyperboloid combinations. Other large ground antennas are simply paraboloid designs. Upgrading the gain of these systems to a gain comparable to that obtainable with a dual shaped reflector antenna system has been an important and costly objective of many such ground stations. A potentially economic method for such an antenna upgrade is presented herein. It involves a redesign of only the subreflector portion of a Cassegrain antenna or the introduction of a subreflector feed system for a parabaloid. A pair of offset subreflectors are synthesized which will give a controllable high gain amplitude distribution in the aperture of the large paraboloid. The synthesis method that is used is based on an approximate formulation for an offset dual shaped high gain antenna that was first presented by Galindo-Israel and Mittra in 1977. In that approximate formulation, the geometrical optics (GO) energy was scattered from a subreflector and then from a second large reflector which reflected a uniform phase distribution. In the present offset dual shaped subreflector (DSS) antenna, the second reflection is from a smaller (sub) reflector and it scatters a spherical wave that feeds a hyperboloid or feeds a large paraboloid directly. Excellent results are shown for the approximate synthesis of the DSS.     

Focal region fields of dual reflector antennas

A simplified analytical method to predict the field distribution in the focal region of dual reflector antennas having circular symmetry is presented. The method is used to study the field distribution at the subdish and in the focal plane, and hence the ability of the antenna in focusing the incident wave. Experimental results obtained on a 2.6-m spherical Gregorian reflector operating at 9.0 GHz agree well with theoretical ones.     

An imaging beam waveguide feed

A pseudo-frequency-independent beam waveguide feed has been designed and built to accommodate a new liquid-helium-cooled millimeter wave radio astronomy receiver in the side cab of the Crawford Hill 7-m antenna. This enables the antenna to be tilted without tilting the liquid-filled receiver. Comparison with the old vertex-cab feed indicates very little measured transmission loss through the beam waveguide. The frequency independence is based upon the Fresnel zone imaging principle. Design procedures and practical bandwidth limitations are explained. An explicit expression for the third-order term of an offset reflector surface clarifies the approximation of a lens by an offset reflector.     

Integratable wide-band dual polarized antennas with rear field cancellation

Two variations of an integratable coplanar waveguide fed aperture stacked patch antenna are presented, which are capable of generating wideband dual polarized radiation. One of the antennas displays the desired characteristics for reducing polarization loss between an antenna remote unit (ARU) and mobile units at arbitrary angles. The other has a dual input structure and low cross-polarization useful for polarization diversity applications, or it can also produce circular polarization with the addition of a 90/spl deg/ hybrid. Back radiation concerns are addressed with the use of reflector patch elements. Results indicate that the rear directed radiation of the two slot coupled printed antennas mounted on small ground planes can be reduced across a wide bandwidth with the addition of a reflector element.     

Equivalent hyperboloid (ellipsoid) and its application

Analogous to the equivalent paraboloid, the equivalent hyperboloid (ellipsoid) for dual quadratic surface reflector antennas is derived. The condition that the equivalent reflector is center fed is also derived. The numerical example shows that a reflector geometry that satisfies this center fed condition is a good initial antenna geometry to design a shaped dual reflector antenna     

Parallel plate waveguide antenna for point-to-multipoint communication at millimetre-wave frequencies

Simulation and measurement results for a parallel plate waveguide antenna designed for a point-to-multipoint communication system at millimetre-wave frequencies is presented. The antenna consists of a waveguide feed, an H-plane horn, an enclosed parabolic reflector, a rectangular waveguide containing irises, and corrugated baffles. Half power beamwidths between 4.9/spl deg/-6.0/spl deg/ in elevation and 58/spl deg/-79/spl deg/ in azimuth are achieved for a bandwidth of 13%. The gain varies between 19 and 20 dBi for the frequency range between 21 and 25 GHz. The manufactured antenna is very compact with a size of 200/spl times/147/spl times/50 mm.     

基于介质波导混合模式的双频馈源喇叭天线

随着大型反射面天线技术的不断发展,天线系统对设备功能的多样化与一体化提出了更高的要求,馈源作为大型反射面天线的核心,其性能决定了反射面天线整体特性.文章基于介质波导混合模式提出了一种介质加载双频馈源喇叭天线,工作于X(7.25～7.75 GHz)/Ka(21～22 GHz)频段.利用特征值理论求解双层介质波导中电磁场表...     

Bicollimated Gregorian reflector antenna

A bicollimated Gregorian reflector is structurally similar to a classical confocal Gregorian reflector, but its surfaces are shaped to have better scan capability. A geometrical optics procedure is used in designing the reflector surfaces. A three-dimensional ray tracing procedure is used in analyzing the aperture phase errors as the beam is scanned to different angles. The results show that the bicollimated configuration has about 45 percent greater angular scanning range than the equivalent confocal Gregorian reflector antenna.