Fast and Accurate Design Tool for Rotationally Symmetric Reflector Antennas with 3D Waveguide Components and Support Structures

We present a new efficient design tool for rotationally symmetric reflector antennas, possibly including 3D support structures and waveguide components. The tool is based on a combination of four solvers: Mode-Matching (MM) for cylindrical wave-guiding structures, a newly developed higher-order BoR-MoM for rotationally symmetric structures, higher-order 3D MoM for arbitrary waveguide components or reflector support structures, and PO for extremely large reflectors. These four solvers are combined using a rigorous domain decomposition approach based on scattering and admittance matrices, and the concept of radiation ports is introduced to decouple multiple scatterers located in free space. The admittance matrices of the unchanged parts can then be reused during the optimization phase, thus significantly reducing the time to rebuild the full solution. An example reflector design shows significantly improved performance compared to previously published results.

Publication: ESA 34th Antenna Workshop
Place: ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands