Reflector Antenna

Jason Miksovsky
Abhishek Khanna
Mohammed Arif
Peter Krammer
Two main purposes of Antenna
Impedance matching: matches impedance
of transmission line to the intrinsic
impedance of free space to prevent
wanted reflection back to source.
Antenna must be designed to direct the
radiation in the desired direction.
Reflector Antenna
Reflector antenna such as parabolic
antenna are composed of primary
radiator and a reflective mirror.
Source: http://ksrs.or.kr
Parabolic Reflector Antenna
Any electromagnetic wave incident upon the
paraboloid surface will be directed to the
focal point.
Primary antenna is used at the focal point of
the parabolic reflector antenna instead of
isotropic antenna. The isotropic antenna
would radiate and receive radiation from all
directions resulting in spillover.
Primary antenna should be designed to
illuminate just the reflector uniformly.
Characteristics
Effective area of reflector antenna:
Projected physical aperture:
Gain:
Loss in efficiency due to due to radiation in undesired
direction
Spillover loss
Focal point errors
Feedhorn sidelobes
Imperfections in parabolic surface
Feedline line


p IA Ae q =
4
2 D
Ap
t
=
( )2 / t q D I Gain =
Loss
Characteristics
Aperture:
r= radius of the diameter
Larger dish has more gain than smaller
Clear line of sight is important

2 ^ r A t =
Source: Lecture (12/05/02)
Calculations
Physical area:
D= Diameter
Effective area:
= illumination efficiency
Wavelength:
Gain:
3db beamwidth:
4
2 ^ D
Ap
t
=
Ap i Ae * q =
q
f
c
=
2 ^
4

tAe
Gi =
Degrees
D
dB

u 70 3 =
Half power beamwidth


The half power graph showing the angle between
the half power point on either side of maximum
Radiation pattern for parabolic antenna
DIRECTV
DIRECTV Specs
D of reflector = 18 = 0.457 m
Operating frequency = 12.4 GHz
Illumination Efficiency



(http://www.mitre.org/pubs/showcase/fcc_may01/mitrereport_4_0
1.pdf)




% 8 . 77 778 . 0 = =
I
q
Projected Physical aperture of
parabolic reflector
2
2 2
164 . 0
4
) 457 . 0 (
4
m
m D
A
p
= =
H
=
t
Effective Area
2 2
127 . ) 164 . 0 ( 778 . 0 ) ( m m A A
p I e
= = =q
Gain
2736
0242 .
) 457 (.
778 . 0
) (
2 2
=
|
.
|

\
|
=
|
.
|

\
|
=
m
m D
G
i i
t

t
q
m
GHz f
c
0242 .
4 . 12
10 3
8
=

= =
Gain in dB
( ) ( ) dBi G G
i dBi
38 . 34 2736 log 10 log 10 = = =
3-dB Beamwidth

71 . 3
457 . 0
0242 .
70 70
3
=
|
.
|

\
|
=
|
.
|

\
|
= O
m
m
D
dB

3dB beamwidth for DirecTV