U.S. patent number 3,599,219 [Application Number 04/794,857] was granted by the patent office on 1971-08-10 for backlobe reduction in reflector-type antennas.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Andrew Corporation. Invention is credited to Thomas E. Charlton, Laurence H. Hansen, Alfred G. Holtum, Jr..
United States Patent |
3,599,219 |
Holtum, Jr. , et
al. |
August 10, 1971 |
BACKLOBE REDUCTION IN REFLECTOR-TYPE ANTENNAS
Abstract
The axial backlobe of a circular parabolic antenna dish is
greatly reduced by providing variation of the phase of radiation
diffracted at successive portions of the edge. The phase is varied
by providing an edge configuration in which successive portions of
the edge are at differing distances from the feed. A dual-polarized
antenna employs a polygonal rim surrounding the round reflector. A
large increase in front-to-back ratio is obtained. The theory of
operation is described to enable use in other structures.
Inventors: |
Holtum, Jr.; Alfred G. (Oak
Forest, IL), Charlton; Thomas E. (Orland Park, IL),
Hansen; Laurence H. (Oak Lawn, IL) |
Assignee: |
Andrew Corporation (Orland
Park, IL)
|
Family
ID: |
25163887 |
Appl.
No.: |
04/794,857 |
Filed: |
January 29, 1969 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
343/840;
343/912 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01Q
19/022 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H01Q
19/02 (20060101); H01Q 19/00 (20060101); H01q
019/12 () |
Field of
Search: |
;343/781,840,912,914 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Lieberman; Eli
Claims
What we claim is:
1. In microwave transmission apparatus including at least one feed
radiator and a conducting reflector of predetermined reflecting
surface shape having at least a portion of its boundary exposed to
feed radiations of substantially equal phase, the improved
construction characterized by having a conducting extension on at
least a portion of the boundary of the reflector so exposed, the
extension departing from the reflecting surface shape and having
means thereon for producing, at remote rearward locations,
diffracted radiation fields of progressively advanced and
progressively retarded phase from successive points along the edge
of the extension, each progression of relative phase including a
plurality of phases intermediate between the most advanced and the
most retarded, the difference between the latter phases being
greater than 180.degree., the rearwardly diffracted energy being
widely diffused in directionality by the interaction of the
numerous phases.
2. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 1 wherein
there are a plurality of such progressions, the phase produced at
successive points being alternately advanced and retarded along the
edge.
3. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 1 having
delay means varying the transmission time of radiations from the
feed to successive portions of the edge to excite the diffracted
radiation in differing phase.
4. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 3 wherein
the edge of the extension has successive portions at differing
distances from the feed and constitutes the delay means varying the
transmission time to the successive portions.
5. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 4 wherein
the edge of the extension has portions of alternatingly increasing
and decreasing distance from the feed.
6. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 4 wherein
the difference between the greatest and smallest distance of any
portions of the edge from the feed is between 1/2 wavelength and 3
wavelengths at the operating frequency of the feed.
7. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 6 wherein
the difference is approximately one wavelength.
8. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 6 wherein
the extension extends in a direction close to parallelism with the
direction of the radiations from the feed incident thereon, so that
the difference of linear distances from successive portions of the
edge to the perimeter of the reflecting surface is substantially
equal to the difference of distances of such portions of the edge
from the feed.
9. The improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 1 wherein
the boundary of the reflector is circular and the feed radiations
have their electric field linearly polarized across a diameter, the
reflector having at least one such conducting extension on the
portions in the region of each end of said diameter.
10. A suppressed-backlobe parabolic dish antenna comprising the
improved microwave transmission apparatus of claim 9 wherein the
reflector is a circular parabolic dish having the feed at the
focus.
11. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 10 wherein the extensions
on said portions comprise arcuate ring-segments of alternately
increasing and decreasing radial dimension on the periphery of the
dish aperture.
12. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 11 wherein the outer edge
of at least a portion of each ring-segment is linear and
substantially tangent to the circular aperture.
13. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 12 wherein each
ring-segment has a plurality of such tangent linear edges forming a
generally polygonal segment-edge shape.
14. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 11 wherein the maximum
difference of distance of portions of the edges from the feed is
from 1/2 wavelength to 3 wavelengths at the operating
frequency.
15. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 14 wherein the feed is
closely adjacent to the front plane of the dish and the extensions
extend substantially wholly radially in that plane so that the
difference in distance from the feed is substantially equal to the
difference of radial extension.
16. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 15 having thereon an entire
circular ring so formed.
17. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 16 wherein the outer edges
of the ring are in the general form of a polygon circumscribed
about the circular aperture.
18. The parabolic dish antenna of claim 17 wherein the ring has a
maximum radial extension of approximately one wavelength, the
maximum extension being at short flat regions at the vertices of
the polygon.
Description
This invention relates to directional microwave transmission, and
more particularly to high-gain reflector-type antennas.
An important figure of merit in reflector-type antennas is the
ratio, normally expressed in decibels, of the main or axial beam to
the maximum radiation produced in any backward direction, commonly
called the "front-to-back ratio." It has long been known that back
radiation is produced by diffraction at the edge of the reflector,
and has often been observed that the front-to-back ratio varies
substantially with reflector shape.
Both for reasons of relative simplicity of manufacture and for
reasons connected with the most desirable forward radiation
characteristics, by far the most common form of reflector in
widespread use is the circular "dish" paraboloid. The front-to-back
ratio of such an antenna is relatively low because of a large
on-axis backlobe where substantially the full aperture is sought to
be used. Various forms of backlobe suppression have heretofore been
used or attempted with circular dishes to achieve high
front-to-back ratios. The simplest and most obvious of these, of
course, is mere enlargement of the dish to the point where the
illumination of the edge is very low compared to the central
illumination, i.e., employment of a feed which is incapable of
fully using the aperture, thus producing a high front-to-back ratio
at the price of severe sacrifice of the forward pattern of which
the aperture is capable when fully illuminated. (It will of course
be understood by persons skilled in the art that terms such as
"feed," "illumination," "radiator," etc., which appear to have a
connotation of use in transmitting, rather than receiving, signals,
are not actually limitative, the direction of travel of the energy
being of no consequence.)
As another approach, various forms of shield-type additions have
been made to the edges of fully illuminated circular reflectors to
reduce the high axial backlobe with varying degrees of success. So
far as is apparent from study, the primary effects of such
additions as have been found beneficial are basically analogous to
employment of only a part of the aperture, the benefit flowing from
relocating the diffracting edge in a region of relatively low
energy-reception. In addition to being fairly expensive,
particularly for large-size dishes, all such known constructions
add to the bulk and/or wind resistance of an antenna to an extent
which is impractical for many or most purposes.
The present invention provides a novel form of construction for the
edge of a circular parabolic dish antenna which achieves a large
improvement in front-to-back ratio with no appreciable impairment
of the forward beam, with wholly negligible increase of antenna
dimensions and weight, and with only a relatively trivial addition
to cost.
In the present invention, as in the addition of shield-type
structures, a conducting extension is added to at least a portion
of the perimeter of the circular dish. However in the present
invention the conducting extension is of dimensions so small in
relation to the overall dish dimensions as to be a negligible
addition as compared with additions or extensions which have the
effect of placing the diffracting edge in a region of very low
illumination. Indeed, the addition to the circular configuration in
the present invention is desirably sufficiently small so that the
intensity of illumination of the entire radial extension is
uniform, i.e., so that the field produced by the feed at the
outermost portion of the extension is not importantly less than the
field produced at the edge of the circular main body. Backlobe
suppression structures of the prior art so dimensioned give
negligible benefit. However in the present construction the outer
edge of the extension is formed with a plurality of convolutions
extending alternately closer to and farther from the feed so that
the induced currents whose reradiation is the mechanism of
diffraction are in differing phases. If one elemental portion of
the convoluted edge is a half-wavelength further from the feed than
a second, the diffracted radiations at the elemental radiators thus
formed will be in opposite phase. If the direction of extension is
wholly radial, the two elemental radiators thus defined are
effectively at equal distances from any remote point on the axis,
and the reinforcing back-radiations produced at the edge of the
circular structure when used alone are converted to nulls on the
axis for such pairs of points. As may be seen from study, it is
possible to produce entire nulling of the axial backlobe by using a
"symmetrical square wave" edge shape. Such a shape is of very
limited utility, but it will serve to illustrate the utilization of
the relative phase of portions of the diffracted radiation to
control the back-radiation pattern which is the essence of the
broader aspects of the invention. As will now be seen, the full
cancellation of the axial beam would be more or less inconsistent
with achievement of the maximum front-to-back ratios which the
invention is capable of giving.
The shifting of the relative phase, whether in the example just
mentioned or in the more generally useful constructions to be
described, does not affect the total back-radiated energy to any
substantial degree. Energy removed from the axial beam thus appears
in a pattern of off-axis lobes. It will be seen, for example, that
the radial "square-wave" shape just discussed produces an off-axis
pattern, details of which depend on the length selected for the
alternated "steps" of opposite phase. For any given backward
radiation, with no variation of the main beam, the best
front-to-back ratio would be obtained with a back-radiation pattern
of uniform dispersion throughout the solid angle generally
considered as the backlobe region. Thus a null of the axial
backlobe is in general undesirable, although the invention in its
broad aspects may be utilized in this manner where only a narrow
angle of back radiation is of concern.
Much greater improvement in front-to-back ratio is obtained by
employing a continuum of relative phases in each edge convolution,
i.e., in which each progression between minimum and maximum
feed-distance is a slope or curve, rather than a single abrupt
step-function.
An additional departure from the "half-wave square-wave" concept
thus adopted as a conceptual reference relates to the difference
between distances from the source (corresponding to the actual
convolution dimensions in the case of the "focal-plane" feed and
wholly radial backlobe-suppressor configurations). If only a
half-wave overall variation is provided, producing 180.degree.
between the most advanced and most retarded phase components, there
is no opposite-phase elemental radiator to correspond to an
intermediate point. Accordingly, it is generally desirable that the
difference in distance from the feed correspond to approximately a
full wavelength (exactness not highly critical). Multiples of a
full wavelength may be used, but with little or no added benefit.
Indeed, since illumination of the edge of a parabolic dish is
normally in a region of substantial feed-pattern gradient (and
certainly of the derivative of the gradient) the performance of the
suppression may be substantially impaired by excessive size. In
general, accordingly, the variation between the distance of the
feed from the closest point on the convoluted edge to its distance
from the farthest point on the convoluted edge should desirably be
between about one-half wavelength and about three wavelengths at
the frequency of the feed, with approximately one wavelength being
the preferred difference.
The discussion thus far neglects the effects of polarization
direction of the signal. It is found that this is in fact a major
factor in practical design of structures for best utilization of
the invention. Experimental results appear to indicate that the
backward diffraction can be treated as occurring in proportion to
the electric field polarization component perpendicular (in the
plane of the conductor) to the conductor edge. Stated otherwise,
for any given intensity of feed radiation incident on an elemental
edge portion, the backward diffraction from that elemental portion
varies as the cosine of the angle between the edge and the
direction of electric field polarization.
If so desired, the backlobe suppression addition of the invention
may be made an integral part of the reflector, formed (except for
the shaping of the edge) in the same operation in which the
reflector is given its parabolic contour. In general, however, it
is much more simple and economical to add the suppression
construction to an existing dish, and the invention in its narrower
aspects employs a simple and easily fabricated adjunct for this
purpose.
Although the invention was conceived and developed with the
specific object of increasing the front-to-back ratio of a circular
parabolic antenna with uniform edge illumination, its broader
teachings will be seen from study of the more detailed description
below to be adaptable to other applications wherein the suppression
of undesired radiation backlobes produced by diffraction at a
conductor edge is required.
With the general purpose and mode of operation of the structure of
the invention thus described, the embodiment illustrated in the
drawing, together with the further novel features and advantages of
the invention, and its more detailed theory, will be readily
understood.
IN THE DRAWING:
FIG. 1 is a front view in elevation of an antenna incorporating the
invention;
FIG. 2 is a diametric sectional view of the antenna, with the feed
structure shown in elevation;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary front view of the peripheral
portion of the antenna;
FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of
FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a view in elevation of the feed employed in the
particular embodiment illustrated, taken along the line 5-5 of FIG.
2;
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of
FIG. 3;
FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 7-7 of
FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a set of comparative partial radiation patterns; and
FIG. 9 is a schematic view illustrating certain aspects of the
theory underlying the invention.
The embodiment of FIGS. 1 through 7 is a cross-polarized antenna 10
having a circular parabolic reflector 12. The feed assembly,
generally designated at 14, comprises a dual-polarized horn feed 16
fed by waveguides 18 and 20 oriented in conventional "buttonhook"
fashion to extend through vertex plate 22 and provided with
coupling flanges 24 and 26 at the rear of the reflector. Preferably
the feed 16 is closely adjacent to the plane of the front edge of
the reflector 12, the configuration thus constituting a
"focal-plane" feed. The particular feed construction employed is of
the type disclosed and claimed in the U.S. Pat. application of
Richard F. H. Yang and Laurence H. Hansen, Ser. No. 641,348, filed
May 25, 1967. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, it comprises a square horn
28, surrounded by a square sleeve 30 mounted on a round reflector
plate 32 to form a choke annulus 33 set slightly back from the
mouth of the horn. A shielding skirt 34 around the perimeter of the
plate 32 and intermediate circular vane 36 complete the feed. The
design and construction of the feed are not directly relevant to
the present invention, which is advantageously used with any feed
construction, and the purpose, dimensioning, etc., of the elements
of the feed are accordingly not further described beyond stating
that it produces a very wide solid angle of uniform dish
illumination.
The reflector 12 is, except for the peripheral addition later to be
described, of conventional construction, being an aluminum sheet
formed to paraboloidal concavity by a spinning operation and having
a rearwardly extending flange portion 38 and a reinforcement ring
40 (formed from segments not shown) rigidizing the flange 38 by
welds securing the ring 40 to the main body of the rear of the dish
and to the flange 38.
To the periphery of the circular dish structure, there is secured a
rim generally indicated at 42. The rim 42 is formed from
angle-stock bent to conform to the circular perimeter of the dish.
One of the webs of the angle serves as the support web 44, being
welded to the flange 38. The other web, which extends wholly
radially outwardly in the plane of the circular edge of the dish,
is formed to produce distribution of the phase of the diffracted
radiation and constitutes a diffraction ring 46. The ring 46 is
generally in the form of a regular polygon having sides 48 tangent
to the circular dish. As seen in FIG. 3, the ring 46 has slight
departures from the configuration of a regular polygon at the
intersections of the sides 48, whereat there are short flat
portions 50 for reasons which will be mentioned later.
With this construction, the distance of points on the edge of the
diffraction ring 46 from the feed 16 (i.e., from its effective
phase center) varies continuously from a minimum at the points of
tangency to the circular configuration to a maximum on the flats
50. It will be seen that although the sides 48 are straight, the
portions extending in each direction from the points of tangency
are effectively opposite "slopes" for purposes of the manner in
which distance from the radiation source varies alternatingly with
angle around the circular structure.
As indicated in FIG. 4, the maximum radial extension of the
diffraction ring 46 is approximately one wavelength at the
frequency of operation of the feed 16. The construction illustrated
employs a diffraction ring in the form (except for flats 50) of a
12-sided regular polygon (dodecahedron). A specific antenna
constructed as illustrated has a 10-foot diameter reflector and is
operated at 6.175 GHz. As later seen, it is these parameters which
determine the number of sides of the polygon in accordance with the
narrower aspects of the invention. The purpose and operation of
certain features of the illustrated structure will best be
understood by first considering the underlying theory and
experimental findings in a manner somewhat amplifying the general
statements earlier made.
In FIG. 8, there are reproduced fragmentary radiation patterns of
an antenna with which experimentation was performed in the
development of the invention. E-plane patterns with and without
diffraction phase dispersion are shown at 52 and 54 and the
corresponding H-plane patterns at 56 and 58, each over a range of
plus and minus 10.degree. from the axial backward direction. Before
considering the effects of the addition of the invention, shown at
54 and 58, there can be pointed out the features of the "no rim"
patterns of the prior art construction, and the manner in which
they lead to a "model" of the diffraction phenomena in such a
structure which permits applying the invention not only to the
present purposes but also to the improvement of many other
microwave transmission devices where analogous problems are
encountered.
It will be seen that the H-plane pattern at 56 has a single large
peak in the axial direction. (As will be obvious, the ordinate
values on the vertical scale represent ratio in decibels to the
axial front lobe, not shown). Except for minor lobes close to the
axis, the back radiation is below the recording sensitivity. In the
E-plane, however, as shown at 52, there are found a large number of
peaks of substantial amplitude at all angles, even the axial
central peak being far less sharp than the single "pip" in the
H-plane pattern. The dissimilarity of the patterns in the two
planes, upon analysis, has led to a qualitative portrayal of the
mechanism of backlobe formation, and thus to the manner in which
the large central lobe is suppressed in the present invention.
In FIG. 9 there is shown a diagrammatic representation of the
manner of formation of the relatively intense axial backlobe in a
circular dish antenna. There are shown two shaded peripheral arcs
60 and 62. These are considered as "effective radiators," excited
in equal phase by the component of the electrical field vector
perpendicular to the edge. If the intensity of the excited
reradiation at the two ends of the electric-field diameter be taken
as E.sub.O, the radiation from any other point is E.sub.o cos
.theta., where .theta. is the angle formed with the polarization
direction by the radius to the point. The diffraction radiation is
thus maximum at the ends of the E-vector diameter, shown as the
sides of the dish in FIG. 9, and zero at the top and bottom. By
more or less arbitrary selection of points where the radiation may
be considered to become negligible, there results a model
consisting of two arcuate "arrays" of vertically stacked in-phase
short radiators, horizontally spaced by an amount very large
compared to a wavelength. The H-plane pattern for the two "arrays"
is the same as the pattern for either of them, i.e., a single
strong beam perpendicular to the plane of the array. In the
E-plane, however, there appears a diffused and complex
"interference pattern" produced by the interaction of two curved
arrays thus widely spaced. Because of the curvature of the
"arrays," none of the peaks in the intricate side patterns in the
E-plane approaches the amplitude of the axial backlobe, the axis
remaining the only place where the radiation from all elemental
radiators arrives in the same phase.
By altering the in-phase relation of the elementary radiators, the
axial backlobe may be reduced (or even eliminated) by distributing
the energy-radiation which it represents over a large number of
smaller lobes. The simplest way of "breaking up" the phase
uniformity is to add to the circular diffracting edge conducting
extensions for the purpose of delaying the incidence of the
phase-front from the feed on the edge portion at one rotational
angle with respect to the time of its incidence on the edge portion
at another. It will be observed that mere edge-shaping the
paraboloidal surface itself will avoid the phase identity, i.e.,
that the extending conducting structure may follow the paraboloidal
internal contour of the reflector in the form, for example, of
notches forming a toothed aperture. Although such an employment of
the invention is within the contemplation of its broadest aspects,
it has numerous disadvantages as compared with the plane radial
diffraction ring earlier described, in addition to the obvious
disadvantage of complexity of fabrication. Such a construction
substantially alters the forward pattern, in addition to the
desired beneficial effect on the back radiation. Additionally, the
convolutions of the edge required for any given performance will
necessarily be much larger than in the case of the illustrated
construction. With a direction of extension following the parabolic
cross section, the necessary position difference between two points
required to give any given difference of phase of excitation is
enormously greater than the mere portion of a wavelength
corresponding to that phase difference. Further, except in the case
of "deep dishes" and "shrouded" construction, wherein the feed is
rearward of the plane of the diffracting edge, the effects of the
difference in phase of excitation will be partially cancelled by
the axial displacement of the planes in which the points of
different phase lie; to any extent that a difference in phase of
excitation results merely from a backward axial component of
difference in distance from the feed, the advantage is largely
cancelled.
It is accordingly desirable that the conducting extension depart
outwardly from the parabolic shape of the main body of the
reflector, irrespective of whether it is constructed as an integral
extension of the reflector surface or a separate addition. To
minimize the dimension required for any given maximum difference of
phase of excitation, the diffracting-edge addition is desirably
reasonably close to parallelism with the direction of exposure to
the feed. Thus in the case of the focal-plane antenna, the wholly
radial plane of the edge of the circular aperture forms an ideal
location. In addition to the minimization of required dimensions
for production of any given phase difference in excitation, the
entire "array" of elemental radiators now excited in different
phases remains in the same plane perpendicular to the axis.
Where the antenna is of a design wherein the feed is substantially
forward of the plane of the edge of the circular dish, the best
orientation for the diffraction ring must be determined by
experiment in each case. If the wholly radial plane is employed,
dimensions required for any given phase difference of excitation
are increased, and in addition the angle of incidence on the added
forward-facing conductor areas thus enlarged is such that the
sidelobe production in the forward direction may in some cases
become objectionable. In this case, tilting back of the ring may be
employed.
It will of course be understood that the advantages of the
invention may in part be obtained by somewhat different entire
location of the phase-diffusing edge. For example, it will be
obvious from the teachings of the invention to modify the outer
edges of large "back-radiation shields" to produce variation of the
phase of the diffracted radiation, and thus render such shields
truly effective. Although it is most desirable that the invention
be utilized in a manner minimizing the size of the structure added
to the antenna, it may of course be employed in such a less
advantageous manner while still utilizing its more basic
aspects.
As will by now be obvious, a diffracting ring extending all around
the circumference of the dish is not required for an antenna of
single polarization, only the segments which oppose each other in
the direction of E-polarization being of substantial effect. An
entire ring is used in the illustrated embodiment largely because
of the dual polarization of the feed. However, the added cost of an
entire ring, as compared with mere opposed segments, is essentially
negligible, and it is contemplated that entire rings may be used
routinely in dishes of general utility.
It will be seen upon study that the dispersion of the axial
backlobe of the curves 52 and 56 into numerous sidelobes does not
require intricate and precise design of the outer edge of the
diffracting structure. Further, it will be seen that the most
complex and continuous (and therefore the most uniform and thus
lowest-maximum) radiation pattern will be produced by having
radiation elements of a large number of phases, rather than merely
the single phase of the circular structure or mere opposed phases.
A simple and convenient shape for addition to a circular structure
to achieve continuously varying radius is a circumscribed polygon.
The rear patterns of curves 52 and 56 of FIG. 8 were obtained with
a 12-foot focal-plane dish operated at 6.425 GHz. The desired
variation of one wavelength being approximately 2 inches, a polygon
was constructed of 15 lengths of 2-inch width aluminum tape
arcuately shaped on the inner edge, this number of sides producing
a very close "fit" (no substantial flats) around the 12-foot
diameter. The patterns thus produced in the respective planes are
shown at 54 and 58. (The lobes shown in these rearward 20.degree.
plots were the highest that appeared in the backward region.) As
may be seen in FIG. 8, there was an improvement of about 5 db. in
the front-to-back ratio.
It will be noted that the E-plane pattern 54 was somewhat
asymmetrical near the axis. This was ascribed to the employment of
a polygon with an odd number of sides. Although symmetry of the
radiation in the backward region is of little importance, it is
normally considered preferably. Since there is no substantial
advantage to a null on the axis (note that this is actually a null
point in curves 54 and 58 although there are peaks very closely
adjacent), it was believed, and verified by experiment, that the
flats 50 in the embodiment illustrated would have no adverse
effect, and subsequent constructions, designed for commercial use,
employ polygons with equal numbers of sides. For the band centered
at 6.175 GHz., there were constructed a 12-foot reflector antenna
with a polygonal backlobe suppressor with 14 sides and a 10-foot
antenna with a polygon of 12 sides (illustrated in the drawing).
Fabrication of the diffraction ring is made in a very simple
manner. Aluminum angle stock with a 2-inch web is prebent to
circular or semicircular form and the sides of the polygon are
formed by simple linear machining, either before or after
attachment to the dish.
Reasonably accurate calculation of the backlobe patterns may be
made by summing at each far-field point the phased contributions of
discrete "elemental radiators" considered to be at half-wave
intervals along the outer edge of the ring. The reference amplitude
of radiation is taken as the amplitude at opposite points in the
direction of the E-vector, and the amplitude at other points is
determined in accordance with the cosine of the angle formed with
this diameter (where the number of sides of the polygon is large,
the error introduced by continuing to use the cosine of the radius
angle is small). Phase is assigned in accordance with radial
location. Negligible error is introduced by considering only
portions of the ring forming angles of 45.degree. or less with the
E-vector diameter.
Calculations of the reduction in back radiation of the 10-foot
antenna described in the H-plane indicated that the directly axial
backlobe should be reduced by about 10 db., but that there should
now be maximum lobes in the region of about 7.degree. from the
axis, and a 7.8 db. reduction in maximum backlobe was accordingly
indicated. The reduction of maximum backlobe in the E-plane was
calculated as being even greater, the central backlobe and lobes at
approximately 13.degree. being those of greatest amplitude and
approximately equal. The predicted improvement in front-to-back
ratio taken overall was accordingly the 7.8 db. of the H-plane. In
these calculations, the 2-inch maximum extension was considered as
a wavelength for purposes of representing the frequency band.
Measurements made on the antenna before and after the addition of
the diffraction or suppression ring showed highly satisfactory
correspondence between the theoretical and experimental improvement
when considering the approximations used in the calculations.
At 5.925 GHz., the front-to-back ratio before addition of the ring
was 60 db. and after addition of the ring was 67.5 db. At 6.175
GHz., the ratio was 57 db. before the addition and 66.5 db. after
the addition. At 6.425 GHz., the ratio was 60 db. before the
addition and 71 db. after the addition. In each case, the
measurements were made separately on the two polarizations of the
feed. Differences in the degree of improvement of the two
polarizations were minor despite the asymmetry introduced by the
waveguide feed. Although generally similar improvement is shown in
the 12-foot dish, it is presently believed, although measurements
have not yet been made, that the difference in orientation of the
suppression ring with respect to the two polarizations, inherent in
using a number of sides which is not divisible by four, will
produce considerable difference of location, but only minor
difference of amplitude, of the maximum backlobes of the two
polarizations.
Although the discussion herein has been limited to the type of
microwave transmission equipment in the course of development work
on which the invention was made, many other uses of the teachings
of the invention will be apparent wherever analogous problems must
be solved. As an obvious example, the invention is not limited to
wholly circular reflectors, but can be advantageously employed
where only a part of the reflector aperture is a circular edge, as
in certain forms of paraboloidal reflector geometries. As another
example, in the case of a line-feed reflector antenna with one or
more linear edges, a similar approach may be made to elimination of
the central planar backlobe by addition of phase-dispersing
diffracting extensions of the edges. The feed may of course itself
include a reflector, as in the case of a Cassegrain. Also, it will
be obvious that the described embodiments do not necessarily
purport to give the utmost in backlobe reduction which can be
attained by the invention, the polygonal construction being used
for simplicity of fabrication in view of its adequacy where
complete optimization is unnecessary. Diffraction-pattern shaping
optimized for various needs may be obtained by edge shapes of
diverse configurations reached by calculation and simple
experiment. Further, the invention in its broader aspects may be
embodied in forms which, although superficially wholly different,
will be found to utilize the essential novelty; for example,
persons skilled in the art will devise other means for providing
the relative delay than the source-distance variation. Accordingly,
the scope of the protection to be afforded the invention should not
be limited by the particular embodiments herein described.
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