A Practical Method for Improving the Pointing Accuracy of the Antenna-Radome System

摘要

The radome is often used to house airborne scanning radar antennas to protect antennas from a variety of environmental and aerodynamical effects. The electric thickness of a radome, which is dependent on the geometric thickness and the electric inductivity, is an essential electromagnetic property index influencing the boresight accuracy. The electric thickness, after semi-finished machining, may not meet the design requirement. Over the last three decades, research work has been done to develop techniques aimed at accurate and efficient analysis of the antenna radome systems. One way to decrease the boresight error (BSE) is to compensate the electric thickness error by modifying the geometric thickness of the radome. In practice, only the inner surface of the radome can be precisely modified by applying a special grinding machine after machining the outer surface. The work to determine the grinding area and the grinding allowance from the allowed boresight error is very complex, and is hardly solved only by a mathematical method. A new method combining numerical calculation with practical measurement to determine the grinding area and allowance is presented. It is shown in practice that this method is simple and practical, and is applicable for many kinds of radomes.