Development of quadruple-ridge flared horn with spline-defined profile for band B of the Wide Band Single Pixel Feed (WBSPF) advanced instrumentation programme for SKA

Abstract

A new quadruple-ridge flared horn with numerically defined profiles by spline function is proposed for Band B of the Wide Band Single Pixel Feed (WBSPF) Advanced Instrumentation Programme for SKA in the paper. Optimization for high aperture efficiency on the spline-profiles have been carried out, resulting in that the aperture efficiency is higher than 65% over 4.6-20 GHz and reflection coefficient is below-10 dB.

On Inadequacy of Sequential Design of Experiments for Performance-Driven Surrogate Modeling of Antenna Input Characteristics

“…functionalities, e.g., circular polarization [6], multi-band [7] or MIMO operation [8], pattern/polarization diversity [9], let alone meeting additional requirements such as reduction of the physical size of the radiator [10], [11], calls for unconventional layouts [12]- [19]. These include incorporation of stubs [12], [13], slots [14], [15], defected ground structures [16], [17] or complex (e.g., spline-parameterized) profiles [18], [19] the exact effects of which cannot be quantified using analytical or equivalent network representations. Thus, utilization of full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools is imperative at all design stages to ensure the reliability of antenna evaluation [20], [21].…”

A 10:1 Bandwidth Cryogenic Quadruple-Ridged Flared Horn Design for Reflector Antennas in Radio Astronomy

“…To keep abreast with this development trajectory, reflector feed designs for decade-bandwidth radio telescopes have been investigated intensively by antenna designers and RF microwave engineers globally. To this end, several types of feed design such as the Quadruple-Ridged Flared Horn (QRFH) feed [3]- [10], the Eleven feed [6], [11], the Sinuous feed [6], [12] and the Quasi Self-Complementary (QSC) feed [6], [13], have been proposed, investigated and implemented. Eleven Feed [11] offers attractive constant beamwidth and phase centering on its radiation pattern characteristics and good 7:1 wide impedance bandwidth, but suffers from requiring additional circuitry to match and differentially feed its 200 input impedance, and a comparatively high manufacturing cost.…”

“…The WBSPF aims to greatly extend the bandwidths of the radio astronomical receivers beyond conventional broadband octave receivers while maintaining the same sensitivity criteria. It is desired that the number of receivers required for future large radio telescope arrays will be reduced, thus lowering the fabrication cost and enabling instantaneous wide frequency range observations [3], [10]. For a wideband radio telescope, it must have a very low system noise temperature [10] to achieve the highest possible sensitivity.…”

“…It is desired that the number of receivers required for future large radio telescope arrays will be reduced, thus lowering the fabrication cost and enabling instantaneous wide frequency range observations [3], [10]. For a wideband radio telescope, it must have a very low system noise temperature [10] to achieve the highest possible sensitivity. In addition to the noise from the external environment, the receiver link of the radio telescope inevitably produces noise.…”

“…Due to the inherent characteristics of QRFH, such as multi-octave bandwidth, dual linear polarization, 50 input impedance and good radiation characteristics, this has motivated researchers to come out with many improved and modified designs over past decade [3]- [10], [15]- [21]. However, on examining these published works [3]- [10], [15]- [21], they were in lowfrequency ranges (below 20 GHz), have less impedance bandwidth and did not investigate the performance of QRFH with a cooling system. To address this knowledge gap, this paper presents a modified QRFH feed design operating from 2.4 to 24 GHz with 10:1 impedance bandwidth.…”