On Divided-Fitting Method of Large Distorted

Reflector Antennas based Coons Surface

C. s. Wang, Member, IEEE, F. Zheng, and F. S. Zhang
School of Electromechanical Engineering, Xidian University
Xi'an 710071, China
email: congsiwang@tom.com

Abstract- Best-fit paraboloid is usually adopted to analyze

distorted reflector antennas, which, however, may make the
big partial distortion of antenna reflector unnoticeable. Based
on the shape of distorted reflector, a new divided-fitting
approach is presented combining the hoop trigonometric
function fitting and quadratic radial function fitting methods,
and adopting Coons surface to fit each divided zone. By this
way the reflector can be analyzed and fitted accurately. The
derivation of required formulae to calculate the surface
deviation is also submitted. The application of the
divided-fitting method to analyze a 7.3-m large reflector
antenna and the computation of its electrical performances
are given in detail with right and useful results.

Index Terms- Reflector Antenna, Divided-Fitting Method,

Coons Surface.

I. INTRODUNCTION

Reflector antenna, widely applied in various fields such

as satellite communication, radio astronomy and object
tracking, has a typical mechatronic structure with the
mechanical and electrical performances influencing and
restricting each other. Working under various conditions,
antenna is affected not only by its self-weight but also by
temperature and wind load, which can lead to the distortion
of antenna reflector [1, 2]. A comparison between the perfect
and distorted parabolic antenna working at horizon attitude
shown in Fig. 1, from which the obviousness of the (b)
Fig, 1. The perfect and distorted reflector of parabolic antenna
distortion of reflector caused by its self-weight and wind operatiating under self-weight and wind load at horizon attitude.
load can be seen. In engineering, high surface precision of (a) side view; (b) front view.
antenna's reflector is required because it has a significant
effect on antenna's electrical performances, such as in detail, with which the full surface errors of the distorted
antenna's efficiency, radiation pattern, boresight gain, and reflector can be accurately analyzed by using the hoop
sidelobe level [3]. trigonometric function fitting and quadratic radial function
The traditional method of antenna design is mainly fitting methods and adopting Coons surface fitting. This
grouped into two parts. One is mechanical structure design method can better describe the whole and partial messages
offering surface rms error or probability distribution of the of distorted antenna reflector. Finally, the application of
tolerance of the reflector [4]; the other is electrical design divided-fitting approach to a 7.3-m reflector antenna design
analyzing the electrical performances of antenna [5, 6]. is given with right and useful results.
However, the information of surface rms error cannot
represent the full messages of distorted reflector because
rms error is always obtained by analyzing the best-fit II. FITTING OF DISTORTED REFLECTOR SURFACE
paraboloid. Therefore, the fundamental theory of the The reflector sometimes is not identical to design
best-fit paraboloid is introduced firstly. Then a new paraboloid in antenna manufacturing and installing.
divided-fitting approach of distorted reflector is discussed Besides, reflector distortion will occur under various loads,
thus causing the displacement of each node of back-up
structure. As a result, the antenna reflector will not be a
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
smooth surface. Generally, through the analysis of the
of China under Grant No, 50475171 and 50675167, and the National
Grand Fundamental Research 973 Program of China under Grant No, antenna structure and node displacements, the mathematical
6135801.
1-4244-1539-X/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
equations for distorted antenna reflector can be determined
by using surface fitting, and the boundary conditions of
electromagnetic field can be also decided [7].
The tolerance often used to analyze performances of
reflector antennas is determined by the contour deviation of
the reflector. In fact, the contour deviation is just the
normal deviation En or axial deviation Ez or radial
deviation Ep of nodes in the reflector. However, the
surface rms error determined by the contour deviation and
calculated by best-fit paraboloid method cannot represent
all the information of distorted reflector.
A. Best-fit Paraboloid
The basic idea to determine the best-fit paraboloid is to
performances. What follows is a new fitting method which
can well solve the problems above.
B. New Fitting Approach
Its principle is to integrate hoop trigonometric function
fitting with quadratic radial function fitting, and apply
Coons surface fitting to fit every zone separately. Therefore,
the analysis of whole distorted reflector becomes possible,
and the phase error of the far field intensity caused by
distortion can be also obtained.
The expression of hoop trigonometric function fitting
method is given as follows.
m
Y = ao + L(ai cosix+bi sinix) = f(x;X) (2)
i=1

divide the displacement of each node in the reflector into Where, ao, ai and bi (i = 1, 2, ... , m) are undetermined
two parts. One is the rigid motion (slide and rotation) of coefficients. According to the simulation analysis, m should
whole paraboloid, and the change of antenna focal length. be equal to 4 or 5. The variance of all the hoop nodes is
The other is the deviation of all nodes from the new shown in the following expression.
paraboloid. Then make all the partial derivatives of the rms n 2

~8j2 In (n
P= L[f(xk;X)-Yk]

J
axial error is the total number of sampling k=1
(3)
nodes) to six parameters equal to zero including the = ~[ao + ~(ai cosixk +bjsinixk )- Yk
displacements of the vertex of parabolic reflector Ax, ~Y
and Az, directions of its focus axis tPx and tPy , and the
Where, (xk, Yk) is the coordinate of the kth sampling
node; n is the total number of sampling nodes.
numerical change of the focal length ~f.
By applying the way used in best-fit paraboloid method
Let the coordinate of a sampling node in the surface of [8], the normal equations for hoop trigonometric function

reflector antenna be(xo'Yo'zo) ' and (x o +u'Yo +v,zo +w) fitting method can be obtained.
be the corresponding position of the same node in the AX=C (4)
distorted reflector. What can be obtained are the normal The coefficient matrix is
equations for the best-fit paraboloid.
Sp=H (1)

Where, p = [Ax ~y Az tPx tPy ~f]T A(2m+l)x(2m+l) =

LTf2X~ 0 o
o LTf2y~ o a2m+l.2m+l

o 0 -2LTf4
S= Where, alj = tcos[l]xk '
o LTfY~(2f +zo) o k=l 2
LTfx~(2f +zo) 0 o
o 0 -2LTf3 zo
aij~il~cos[~JXk .cOS[~JXk (i is an even number)

o 0 LTfx~(2f +zo)
o - LTfY~(2f +zo) o ~ sin[f]xk,sin[~]Xk (i is an odd num her)

i L Tf3 Z0 0 o iE (2, ..., 2m + 1) .

o - LTy~(2f +zo)2 o In the expressions above, the symbol [...] means to
o 0 LTx~(2f +ZO)2
draw the integer part.
2LTf2 Z0 2 0 o The constant terms are
H = f2 [LTKfxo LTKfYo LTKf2
C(2m+llxl =[~Yk LYk cosxk LYk sinxk
LTKYo(2f +zo) LTKxo(2f +zo) LTKfto]T
... LYk cosmxk LYk sinmxk]T
Where T=
f
1
, K="2(xou+Yov-2jw). The following is the sequence of the unknown variables.
4(1+zo) f
X = [a o a1b1...m
a b]T
The method determining the best-fit paraboloid for m

surface rms error cannot offer all the information of What follows is the mathematical expression of
distorted reflector because of its neglect of the special quadratic radial function fitting method.
effect of partial great distortion on antenna electrical
 and the corresponding phase error of each sampling node
(5) can be calculated to analyze the electrical performances.
The phase error caused by nodes displacement can be
Where, ao' at and a2 are the undetermined coefficients determined with the availability of corresponding optical
(m is equal to 2). path error of nodes by using the normal deviation &n or
According to the same process above, the corresponding radial deviation &p or axial deviation &z (Fig. 3).
normal equations can be obtained.
Perfect Paraboloid
sooao + sOla l + ... + sOmam = tOY

(6)

Where, sjk=i:Xt k , tjV=IX(Yi (J=o,I, ... ,m).

;=1 ;=1

The coefficient matrix S = [sij ] is a positively definite

symmetrical square matrix of (m + 1) order.
The weight coefficient d j (i = 1,2" . " n, n is total Fig. 3. The deviation of node in reflector.
number of sampling nodes) may be introduced according to
the different reliabilities of the fitting nodes when the
distorted surface is being fitted. The higher the reliability of III. ANALYSIS OF ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS
the sampling node is, the greater the value of d j The far field of reflector antenna is proportional to the
The Coons surface of second kind should be adopted to Fourier transform of its aperture distribution, which may be
ensure that two Coons surfaces are continuous and smooth expressed as follows [5, 10].
at the joint when the divided zone is fitted [9] (Fig. 2). The E = ffQ(p')ej8(P')ejkP'o; ds' (8)
surface of this kind is determined by four boundary curves A

r
uO, u1, Ow and 1w, and their direction derivatives Where the aperture amplitude distribution is defined as
uO w' ul w' OWu and Iwu ' where the intersections of two 2

adjoining boundaries are marked as 00, 01, 10 and 11.

Q(pl)=B+C(I-:: (B+C=I) (9)
ull~ In (9), P is the parameter of the aperture distribution; B
and C are determined by the edge tapers; t5 (p ') is the
corresponding phase error of the aperture of radius p'; a
is the aperture radius.
The detailed expression of phase error induced by the
node radial movement is
4Jr
t5 = - & cos~ (10)
A P

Where, tan ~ = p '/2F with F the focal length of antenna;

00 10
Fig. 2. Coons surface unit of second kind. and A is the running wavelength of antenna.
Let p = p'/ a and u = kasinO, then (8) can be stated
What follows are the symbol expressions.
discretely as
uO = a(uw) I uO = a(uw) I 2
N
ji5k
u au w=o w aw w=O E(u) = 2Jra LEk,k_l (u)e (11)
k=l
The specific formula of Coons surface fitting method is
Where
uO T Fo(w) Fo(u) T Ow Ek,k-l (u ) = Ek (u ) - Ek_l (u ) (12)
ul ~(w) ~(u) Iw
uW= + Ek(u)= .fQ(p)Jo(up)pdp (13)
Go(w) Go(u)
Gl(w) Gl(u) t5k in (11) is just the phase error of center of fitting zone.
(7)
T Applied in the formula derivation is Bessel function of
Fo(u) 00 01 OOw OI w Fo(w)
first kind.

Jm(X)J-:t r
~(u) 10 11 lOw II w ~(w)
Go(u) OOu Ol u OOuw OI uw Go(w) ejxcOS9' cos(mqJ) dqJ (14)
Gl(u) IOu Il u 10uw II uw Gl(w) Where, m denotes the order of Bessel functions.
Where Fo' F 1 , Go and G1 are the blending functions. The boresight gain loss caused by the surface distortion
After fitting the distorted surface, the optical path error can be expressed as follows.
 G 2
/1G = lOlog- = lOloge-(2Jr&IA)
GO -10

(15)
-20

-30
~
Where G and Go are the gains of the perturbed and 'i -40
~
unperturbed reflector antenna respectively; &p is the rms a..
-50
value of radial surface deviation.
-60

-70
IV. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
-80 l - - - - - - l _ - - - - 1 . . . . ! . . - - - L . _ - - - - I - _ - L - _ - - - I . - _ - l . - _ . . . . L . - _ . . . L . . - - - J
A detailed analysis is made of the electrical performance o 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
u =k*a*sin(Theta)
of a 7.3-m circular parabolic antenna with the focal length (a)
2.5335926 m. Its emission frequency bands are Ku and C; "'_ I

CCIR sidelobe envelope is CCIR. 580-2; operating and -10 --- --- j:.- -'- - ,- -1--------1--------~ --------~ -------+-------1------
survival wind speeds are 20 m/s and 55 m/s respectively. \: ~ ~ 1 ~ i '-------.. . 1

The antenna reflector is a typical shell structure -20 - - - - - - -1- ------ -~, ------ -1--------r--------~- --------~- -------1--------t--------r-------

:: ::::::I:::::::J:'\ ?:_~]:~::':~::~~:'\l/::t~-~_:j-:::->:l!:>-~I~,~",\:
manufactured by drawing duralumin with 2-mm thickness
and composed of 16 fan-shaped reflectors with Z-typed
aluminum strengthening bars on the back.

:~ ~ ~~:t~ j: : : : ~ ~~:J~ ~ ~ r: ~: ~[~:-J~ ~ j :'~ ~:~ t ~ ~:',

Fig. 4 demonstrates the power patterns with different
working parameters of antenna model at zenith attitude
affected only by its self-weight, which mainly involve the
edge taper ET and aperture distribution parameter P of I::
antenna. The correlative boresight gains at different
operating frequencies are also analyzed and summarized in -90 l - - - - - - - - I _ - - - - l _ - - - - l _ - - L _ - - L _ - - L _ - - L . _ - - L . _ - - - - L . . _ - - - - l
Table 1. Fig. 5 shows the patterns of the antenna model at o 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
u =k*a*sin(Theta)
horizon attitude with the self-weight and head-on wind of (b)
the speed of 20 m/s as the external applied load, where the - :

same parameters are used for the numerical simulation. -10

Table II lists the different boresight gains corresponding to -20

different working frequencies simultaneously.
From the analysis of the given radiation patterns of -II

reflector antenna, the value of the edge taper has an obvious -40

effect on the radiation pattern, while the value of the

-50
aperture distribution parameter has little influence on the
far field of the reflector. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 5, -60

with the greater distortion of reflector caused by wind load, -70

the main beam of antenna becomes wider, the directivity
becomes worse and the first sidelobe level increases -00

obviously. But the antenna electrical performances at this -9:1

0 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
moment still satisfy the working requirements. u= k*a*sin(Theta)

As to the same exponent of direction function of the feed (c)

electric field, the antenna boresight gain decreases with fall

in operating frequency, which can be concluded from Table
I and also explained by the theoretical formula of antenna
gain. The gain shown in Table II should follow this
principle theoretically, but it is not true indeed because the
surface error and the corresponding boresight gain loss are
proportional to the external applied load when the antenna
focus axis is parallel to the horizon. Therefore, the antenna
-60
gain increases as the frequency is greater than 5.85 GHz,
and decreases reversely as the frequency is approximate to -70

14 GHz (the exponent of direction function of the feed is -00

unchanged).
-9:1 ' - - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - ' - - - - - '
o 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
u= k*a"sin(fheta)

(d)
Fig. 4. The far-field pattern of antenna at zenith attitude.
(a) ET = -10dB, P = 1; (b) ET = -10 dB, P = 2;
(c) ET = 0 dB, P = 1; (d) ET = 0 dB, P = 2.
 TABLEl
BORESIGHT GAINS CORRESPONDING TO DIFFERENT WORKING FREQUENCIES AT
-10 ZENITH ATTITUDE

-20 Freq. (GHz) n* =2 n* = 3 n* =4 n* = 5

.3)
14 49.95 48.90 47.95 47.14
6 49.79 48.74 47.79 46.98
!g
~.40 5.85 49.65 48.6 47.65 46.84
~ n* is the exponent of direction function of feed.
Cl.
.50 ' J.

TABLE II
-so BORESIGHT GAINS CORRESPONDING TO DIFFERENT WORKING FREQUENCIES AT
HORIZON ATTITUDE
-70
Freq. (GHz) n* = 2 n* = 3 n* =4 n* = 5
EllL....-.._....L...-_---L....~---L I . . . . - - _ . . . L . . . - . _ - - ' - - _ - - - ' - _ - - - - '_ _...L..____ __'

o 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 14 49.15 48.10 47.15 46.34

u= k*a*sin(Theta) 6 49.64 48.59 47.64 46.83
(a) 5.85 49.50 48.46 47.51 46.70
- - .. I

r~
+ :
-10

-20 ~:~~:::+'\++f+~.- -+ . V. CONCLUSION

.3) Antenna structure design is an interdisciplinary analysis

and design closely combining electromagnetic with
~.40
mechanical structural technologies. In this paper, the
mathematical expression of relationship between structural
-so
distortion and electromagnetic performances is formed by
means of fitting distorted antenna reflector, and the
-70 . . -.-----~ .. --------:---------~----.
radiation patterns and gain loss of antenna are computed at
[ i [
-Ell different working states. Furthermore, the main structural
50L....-.._....L...-_---L...._---l..._ _I....--_...L...-._--'--_---l... I....--_...L...-._--1
factors influencing the electrical performances are analyzed.
o 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Analysis results of the electromechanical coupling
u= k*a*sin(Theta)
performances of a 7.3-m reflector antenna verify the
r
(b)

-10
,~
"'\. f=14GH,
---- f:::;6GHz
undislorted
l correctness of the analysis theory, approach and programs
discussed above. All the research achievements provide a
\- -
~;
theoretical guidance and an effective method for improving
\ / \,' I ~. .r-
-20
the efficiency of antenna design.

ff1
\} \~( \. ;/ ~
-30

II
II \/
~-40
J REFERENCES
J -50
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60
i~ mechanical and electronic synthesis for the antenna structural
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-70
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80
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o 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
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