Axially displaced elliptical reflector antenna design with a switchable feeder for ultra‐wide band applications

Abstract

This study presents a novel compact high gain dual reflector antenna design with a switchable feeder for ultra-wide band (UWB) applications. The design comprises a main parabola, a replaceable feeder antenna that is chosen depending on the requirements in a given situation, and an axially displaced elliptical sub-reflector. The functioning of two different feeder antennas with manual switching option, the partly dielectric loaded K-Vivaldi and double-ridged horn (RH), is discussed in this research study. When the K-Vivaldi is employed, the dual reflector antenna is more appropriate for impulse radiation with 33:1 operational bandwidth, ranging from 600 MHz to 20 GHz. The double-RH feeder antenna displays more efficiency than the K-Vivaldi one; however, the bandwidth in this case goes down to 12:1, ranging from 1.6 to 20 GHz. The sub-reflector, situated inside the main parabola aperture with onset type of feeders, reduces the depth of the structure to 16 cm. The antenna dimensions are 60 cm × 60 cm x 16 cm. Experiments have shown that the designed antennas display good efficiency and high gain performances in UWB operations.