Offset Fresnel zone plate antennas

Abstract

AbstractThe theory of offset Fresnel zone plate antennas is presented. Explicit formulae for the design of the zone boundaries for the offset Fresnel zone plate are given. Theorectical equations and numerical results for the far‐field analysis are presented. It is found that when the offset angle increases, the zone boundaries become more elliptic and the plate becomes more asymmetric in the E‐plane. With the number of full wave zones and the plate width in the W‐plane fixed, the plate width in the E‐plane increases with the offset angle, which keeps the projected aperture area constant. Within a limited range of offset angles, the offset configuration can be employed without degrading the radiation performance much. For large offset angles, however, the asymmetry of the configuration may lead to increased sidelobes and decreased antenna directivity. An experiment with one particular phase reversal zone plate antenna with 30° offset angle shows good agreement between the measured antenna pattern and the theoretical prediction.