The Design and Analysis of Electrically Large Custom-Shaped Reflector Antennas

Abstract

Designing and analyzing electrically large re ectors poses numerically complex problems because the re ector must be sampled nely to obtain an accurate solution, causing an unwieldy number of samples. In addition to these complexities, a custom-shaped re ector poses a new analysis problem. Previously developed methods and theorems including Geometric Optics, Ray-Tracing, Surface Equivalence Theorems, Image Theory, and Physical Optics can be applied to these custom-shaped re ectors however. These methods all share in common their capability to provide accurate results in the analysis of electrically large structures. In this thesis, two custom-shaped re ector concepts are explored which include a rectangular shaped, spherically contoured re ector with largest dimension of 305 meters and a cross-shaped, parabolically contoured re ector with largest dimension of 150 meters. Each re ector is intended to operate in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) L-Band. The re ectors produced di ering results, but the same methods apply to each. The motivation for pursuing these custom-shaped re ectors is for earth-based and space-based satellite communications respectively. In this thesis, the plane wave analysis and the ray tracing results are presented for each re ector, and the initial feed design results for the cross-shaped re ector are presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA584903

Entities

People

  • Joshua M Wilson

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Computational Science
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Earth Orbits
  • Electric Fields
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Geometry
  • Grids
  • Integral Equations
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Radiation Patterns
  • Ray Tracing
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Satellites