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Prime focus symmetric reflector antennas



17.4.1.1 Parabolic reflectors

The axi-symmetric parabolic reflector with a feed at the focus of the paraboloid is the simplest type of reflector antenna. The geometry is shown in Figure 17.8. The paraboloid has the property that energy from the feed at F goes to the point P on the surface where it is reflected parallel to the axis to arrive at a point A on the imaginary aperture plane. The equation describing the surface is given by Equation 17.15, where F is the focal length.


At the edge of the reflector, of diameter D, Equation 17.16 applies.

The depth of the paraboloid is usually specified by its F/D ratio. Common sizes are between F/D = 0.25 (6(1 = 90 degrees) to F/D = 0.4.

17.4.1.2 Aperture fields and radiation patterns

Ray optics indicates that the path length from F to P to A is equal to twice the focal length. Hence the phase across the aperture is constant. The amplitude across the aperture plane will peak at the centre and taper towards the edge for two reasons. Firstly because the feed will have a tapered adiation pattern and secondly because the action of a parabola in transforming a spherical wave from the feed into a plane wave across the aperture introduces a path loss which is a function of angle 6. The aperture electric field is then given by Equation 17.17, where F( 9,<p) is the pattern of the feed.

Feeds suitable for reflector antennas are discussed in a later section, but it is often convenient in initial design to take the feed pattern as being given by Equation 17.18.

Experience has shown that good quality feeds approximate well to this function.

The radiation patterns can be predicted from the aperture fields by using the Fourier transform relations described in Section 17.3.1. This works well for large retlectors but for detailed design of small to medium retlectors it is necessary to take account of the precise form of the currents on the reflector surface and the diffraction that occurs at the edges of the reflector surface. The former can be accomplished with Physical Optics theory (Rusch, 1970; Rusch, 1986) and is good for predicting the main beam and near-in si­delobes. The diffracted fields influence the far-out sidelobes and can be predicted using the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) (James, 1986).

17.4.1.3 Gain of reflector antennas

The gain of a reflector antenna can be calculated from Equation 17.19, where r\ is the efficiency of the reflector.

The total efficiency is the product of six factors:

1. The illumination efficiency is the gain loss due to the non-uni­form aperture illumination.

2. The spillover efficiency is the gain loss caused by energy from the feed which radiates outside the solid angle subtended by Bo called the spillover. It is the fraction of the power which is intercepted by the reflector. As the aperture edge taper in­ creases, the spillover decreases and the spillover efficiency increases, whilst the illumination efficiency decreases. There is an optimum combination which corresponds to an edge illumi­nation of about -10 dB.

3. The phase error efficiency is a measure of the deviation of the feed face front away from spherical and is usually nearly 100%.

4. The crosspolarisation efficiency is a measure of the loss of energy in the orthogonal component of the polarisation vector. For a symmetric reflector no crosspolarisation is introduced by the reflector so the efficiency is determined by the feed charac­teristics. For good feeds this factor is also nearly 100%.

5. The blockage efficiency is a measure of the portion of the aperture which is blocked by the feed and the feed supports. The fields blocked by the feed do not contribute to the radiation so it is desirable to keep the proportion of the area blocked to less than 10% of the total area of the aperture because otherwise the sidelobe structure becomes distorted. The feed support blocking is more complicated because it depends on the shape and orientation of the supports (Lamb, 1986). It is electrically desirable to keep the cross-section of the supports mall which means that a compromise with the mechanical constraints is needed.

6. The surface error efficiency is a measure of the deviations of the aperture wavefront from a plane wave due to surface distor­tions on the parabolic surface. Assuming that the errors are small and randomly distributed with a root mean square (r.m.s.) surface error, the efficiency is given by Equation 17.20. This is a function of frequency and falls-off rapidly above a certain value which means that the upper frequency for which a reflec­tor can be used is always given by the surface errors. The effect on the radiation pattern of random surface errors is to fill in the nulls and to scatter energy in all directions so that the far out sidelobes are uniformly raised.

1Learn the words & word combinations:

a feed облучатель (антенны)
paraboloid параболическая антенна
ray optics геометрическая антенна
plane wave плоская волна
a path loss потери на трассе (распространение радиоволны)
feed pattern диаграмма направленности облучателя
diffraction дифракция
near-in sidelobes ближайшие боковые лепестки
far (-out) sidelobes дальние боковые лепестки
aperture illumination распределение (магнитного поля) по апертуре
spillover мощность облучателя, не перехватываемого зеркалом или линзой (антенны)
intercept перехватывать
phase error фазовая ошибка
polarization vector вектор поляризации
blockage efficiency коэффициент затенения
distortion деформация, смещение, искажение
wavefront волновой фронт
constraint ограничение, сдерживающий фактор
infinitesimally бесконечно, безгранично
radiation resistance сопротивление излучения
a ground plane противовес антенны
hemisphere полушарие
array antenna антенная решетка
microchip patch излучатель (в микрополосковой антенне)
excitation current ток возбуждения, ток намагничивания
array factor множитель решетки
point source точечный источник
planar (plane) array плоская (двухмерная) антенная решетка
broadside array антенная решетка поперечного сечения
linear array линейная антенная решетка

2 Read & translate the text (orally) 17.3.2 – 17.4.1:

3 Find Russian equivalents:

ü an electric current element ü a small metal rod
ü a major design constraint ü infinitesimally ü a phase difference ü mirror ü the pattern of the array assuming point sources
ü a wide variety of patterns ü additional radiation lobes
  ü will peak of the centre
ü the illumination efficiency ü the spillover efficiency
ü the phase-error efficiency ü the crosspolarisation efficiency
ü the blockage efficiency ü the surface efficiency

4 Find English equivalents:

ü производные ü образец излучения
ü широкий ü точные результаты
ü простой случай ü распределение тока
ü по сравнению ü значение (величина)
ü появление ü нежелательны
ü польза ü равный
ü благодаря (из-за) ü вызванный
ü затруднительно  

5 Answer the questions:

1 Where are small antennas used?

2 How are the radiation fields obtained?

3 What is a monopole?

4 What do array antennas consist of?

5 What are the typical elements?

6 What is the total radiation pattern?

7 What is a broadside array?

8 What is its prime advantage?

9 What is the simplest type of reflector antenna?

10 What are the 6 factors of the total efficiency?

PART 3 (17.4.2 – 17.4.4)





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