Determination of array feed excitation to improve performance of distorted or scanned reflector antennas

摘要

The performance degradation of distorted and/or scanned reflector antennas is manifested primarily in a decrease in peak gain and in an increase in radiation pattern sidelobes. The author discusses a procedure for determination of the excitation coefficients of the array feed in order to approximate the 'ideal' performance for both gain and sidelobes. Representative results of 6 GHz are presented for a hexagonal array of 1.5 lambda diameter dual-mode horns with center-to-center spacing of 1.5 lambda , to compensate for the surface distortion of one offset aperture of a mesh deployable reflector antenna.