ENHANCED DIRECTIVITY FEED AND FEED ARRAY

摘要

Disclosed is a shaped horn in conjunction with a dielectric tube for enhanced aperture directivity that can achieve a near optimum efficiency. The shaped horn provides additional mode control to provide an improved off-axis cross-polarization response. The horn shape can be individually optimized for isolated horns or for horns in a feed array. The feed array environment can produce results that lead to a different optimized shape than the isolated horn. Lower off axis cross-polarization can result in improved efficiency and susceptibility to interference.

主权项

1. An antenna comprising:
a reflector; and a feed to illuminate the reflector, the feed comprising:
a horn including a multi-flare mode conversion section having a plurality of flare angles between a first end and a second end; anda dielectric insert including a first portion extending through at least part of the multi-flare mode conversion section, and a second portion extending beyond an aperture of the horn,wherein the multi-flare mode conversion section and the first portion of the dielectric insert convert a signal between a dominant waveguide mode at the first end of the multi-flare mode conversion section and a hybrid mode at the first portion of the dielectric insert, andwherein the hybrid mode propagates along the second portion of the dielectric insert to define an illumination beam towards the reflector.