IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2006
A Hybrid Perturbative Technique to Characterize the
Coupling Between a Corrugated Horn and
a Reflector Dish
Pietro Bolli, Member, IEEE, Gian Guido Gentili, Leonardo Lucci, Renzo Nesti, Giuseppe Pelosi, Fellow, IEEE, and
Giovanni Toso, Member, IEEE
Abstract—In this paper the electromagnetic coupling between a
corrugated horn and a reflector dish is analyzed with a new hy-
brid perturbative technique. This coupling may produce signifi-
cant modifications especially in the return loss and in the cross-
polar pattern of the feed. The hybrid perturbative approach com-
bines three different techniques: a mode matching (MM) technique
for the propagation inside the horn, a method of moments (MoM)
technique for the radiation of the horn taking into account the ex-
ternal part of the horn itself, and a fast Gaussian beam asymptotic
physical optics (FGBAPO) technique for the interactions between
the feed and the reflector. Some measurements and the compar-
ison with rigorous numerical results demonstrate the accuracy of
the new hybrid technique and the effects of this electromagnetic
coupling on the feed performance.
Index Terms—Gaussian beams (GBs), integral equations, elec-
tromagnetic coupling, horn antennas, reflector antennas, pertur-
bation methods.
I. INTRODUCTION
M ICROWAVE reflector antennas in combination with cir-
cular corrugated horns (CCHs) are well-established sys-
tems for different fields of electromagnetic engineering, as radio
communication and radio astronomy, and they have stimulated
the development of more and more accurate analysis tools.
CCHs assure quite unique high-performance features, espe-
cially in terms of low side-lobe levels, high return loss, polar-
ization purity and pattern circular symmetry. On the other hand
reflector antennas are characterized by high gain and broad band
behavior.
The standard approach for the evaluation of the radiation pat-
tern of a reflector antenna assumes the feed located in free-
space. Hence, the effects of the reflector antenna on the feed
performance are considered negligible. In [1] a cylindrical feed
Manuscript received April 22, 2005; revised July 27, 2005.
P. Bolli is with the Istituto di Radioastronomia, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
(e-mail: pbolli@ira.cnr.it).
G. G. Gentili is with the Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politec-
nico di Milano, I-20133 Milano, Italy (e-mail: gentili@elet.polimi.it).
L. Lucci is with the Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni, Uni-
versitá di Firenze, I-50134 Florence, Italy (e-mail: leonardo.lucci@unifi.it).
R. Nesti is with the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astrofisico
di Arcetri, I-50125 Florence, Italy (e-mail: nesti@arcetri.astro.it).
G. Pelosi is with the Dipartimento di Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni, Uni-
versitá di Firenze, I-50134 Florence, Italy (e-mail: giuseppe.pelosi@unifi.it).
G. Toso is with the Antenna and Sub-Millimeter Wave Section, Electromag-
netics Division, ESA-ESTEC, 2200 AG, Noordwijk, The Netherlands (e-mail:
giovanni.toso@esa.int).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2005.863133
0018-926X/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
595
radiating in the presence of an axially symmetric reflector is
analyzed and remarkable effects in the cross-polarized pattern
appear when the feed-reflector coupling is included. A gen-
eral simplified model for feed-reflector coupled system may be
found in [2] and [3]. In order to take into account the interac-
tions between the subreflector and the feed for small cassegrain
reflector antennas, a mode matching (MM) technique has been
introduced in [4].
In this work a new perturbative iterative approach to take into
account the coupling between a circular horn and a reflector dish
is proposed. It is based on a Mode Matching technique for the
analysis of the field guided inside the circular horn, and on an
integral equation formulation solved with the method of mo-
ments (MoM) for the external part of the horn. For the evalua-
tion of the field backscattered by the reflector on the feed itself, a
fast Gaussian beam asymptotic physical optics (FGBAPO) tech-
nique is employed. FGBAPO, based on the expansion of the
field in a set of Gaussian beams (GBs), permits to analyze ac-
curately and efficiently reflectors whose dimensions are large in
terms of wavelength. FGBAPO is very effective also when near
field computations are requested and, furthermore, no assump-
tions of reflector axial symmetry are needed.
The paper is organized as follows. Section II is devoted to de-
scribe the theoretical formulation of the horn aperture problem,
whereas in Section III the perturbative approach is presented. In
Section IV, FGBAPO technique is summarized. In Section V re-
sults obtained with the new technique are compared with some
rigorous numerical results. Finally, in Section VI, the compar-
ison with some measured results provides a further validation
for the new technique.
II. HORN ANALYSIS
The electromagnetic analysis of the isolated circular corru-
gated horn (Fig. 1) is carried out in terms of a combined field
integral equation (CFIE) and a magnetic field integral equation
(MFIE) [5]. The problem has been already treated in the liter-
ature (see [5] and [6]), but here it is presented with the aim to
introduce a new formalism useful to the development of the new
perturbative approach.
In the generalized network formulation introduced by Har-
rington and Mautz in [7], the aperture problem is divided into
two mutually exclusive parts (interior and exterior region). By
applying the equivalence theorem, a metallic sheet is inserted
on the CCH aperture ( of Fig. 1) and a magnetic surface cur-
rent is impressed on the two sides of the sheet. To ensure the
596
Fig. 1. Geometry of a circular corrugated horn: (a) original problem; (b)
external problem; (c) internal problem.
original problem aperture field continuity for the internal and
the external problem, the equivalence magnetic current has to
satisfy a MFIE in the entire aperture . The solution of this
equation requires the calculation of both the interior and exte-
rior magnetic field with the metallic sheet on the aperture and a
given excitation.
For the exterior problem, the horn conductor has been re-
moved and replaced by an electric surface current flowing on
the external horn surface, including the aperture. To ensure the
proper boundary condition a CFIE is imposed on the entire horn
surface . The CFIE and MFIE are, respectively
where is the outward unit vector, is associated with
the known incident modes of the feeding waveguide and, for
the sake of brevity, the operators and are introduced to
express a combination of electric and magnetic field operators
acting in free-space
In (3) is the coupling parameter weighting, in the CFIE,
the electric field integral equation (EFIE) and the MFIE; is
the free-space impedance. Moreover, and are the elec-
tric and magnetic current imposed on and , ways, essentially depending on the procedure to characterize
respectively, and and are the Cauchy principal
value integral field operators in the free-space
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2006
where the function is the Green function,
. A time harmonic de-
pendence has been assumed. Subscript “0” in all the field
operators and currents denotes the free-space environment.
Finally is the magnetic field in the horn interior
generated by the equivalent magnetic current.
This last contribution is evaluated in terms of the generalized
scattering matrix (GSM) of the CCH. The GSM is computed by
resorting to the MM technique, which has the advantage of de-
scribing the wave propagation in the horn interior, even in the
presence of complex corrugation profiles [8] and with an ex-
cellent compromise between accuracy, stability and efficiency.
The axially symmetric discontinuities of the horn are modeled
using a field expansion into and circular wave-
guide modes (with fixed ). The GSM characterizing the whole
horn interior is obtained by the connection of all elementary sec-
tion GSM’s.
In order to solve the (1) and (2), a MoM procedure has
been used. Hence a set of basis and testing functions and an
inner product are defined. The integro-differential equations
have been converted into a system of linear equations. The
axial symmetry of CCH allows one to describe the equivalent
currents of the MoM resorting to a body of revolution (BoR) set
of basis functions [9]. These may be separated in subsectional
triangular functions of the contour length variable and entire
domain trigonometric functions of the azimuthal coordinate. By
using a Galerkin method, the same kind of expansion applies
also to the testing functions.
(1)
(2) III. PERTURBATIVE APPROACH
The theory described in the previous section is now extended
to consider the presence of the reflector antenna. The geometry
of the problem considered is sketched in Fig. 2.
The reflector dish modifies the equivalent currents induced
on the horn surface. A rigorous approach consists in imposing
a boundary condition on the reflector surface, in addition to the
one on the horn surface, yielding a new electric current distri-
bution. Moreover, in (1) and (2) the electric and magnetic field
contributions from the electric current on the reflector should be
considered. Since using the MoM for large reflectors becomes
(3) computationally too demanding, an approximate physical optics
(PO) approach is chosen and hybridized with MM and MoM.
Hybrid techniques are useful to combine two or more com-
pletely different methods overcoming the limitations of each
(4) one. For example in [10] the geometrical theory of diffraction is
combined with MoM to analyze a class of problems where large
scatterers are involved.
It is important to note that the hybridization of a full-wave
technique with an approximate one can be done in several
the coupling between the different regions. Let us consider,
for instance, the hybridization of the MoM with the PO. A
complete hybridization MoM-PO implies that the field in
(5) each point of the MoM region would depend not only on the
incident field and on the field radiated by all the points of the
MoM region, but even on the field generated by the PO region.
(6)
As a consequence the impedance matrix of the MoM would
BOLLI et al.: HYBRID PERTURBATIVE TECHNIQUE TO CHARACTERIZE THE COUPLING 597

where and are the induced currents for the isolated horn
(non perturbed currents). and are the current contribu-
tions which originate from the presence of the reflector (pertur-
bative contributions); the subscript “i” ( corresponds to the
maximum order) represents the current order.
The general framework for the proposed perturbative ap-
proach has been discussed quite extensively in [12], and the
interpretation of a Neumann series solution by iteration of
multiple reflections from the scatterers has been rigorously
motivated.
For what concerns the external problem, even the electric and
magnetic field operators change to take into account the pres-
ence of the reflector

Fig. 2. Geometry of a feed-horn operating in presence of a reflector antenna. (8)

where again and are the free-space operators
change increasing the complexity and the run time. A complete [see (3) and (4)] and and are the new operators
hybridization is usually applied when the coupling between the associated to the reflected field from the mirror
two regions is important; for instance, when considering an
antenna on a large platform, the MoM region could be defined
around the antenna and the PO region could cover the rest of (9)
the platform. Vice versa, a softer hybridization may be applied
when the coupling between the two regions is weak, because (10)
of the distance between the regions or because of their mutual
position. In this case, the PO contributions may be used only where, finally, and are the electric and magnetic
to modify the excitation of the MoM region. The coupling fields scattered by the reflector.
horn-reflector is usually weak so one is authorised to use a Introducing the total currents (perturbed currents) of (7) and
softer hybridization procedure. The novelty of our approach the field operators of (8) in (1) and (2), and exploiting the lin-
consists in the iteration, in a perturbative way, of this soft earity of the field operators, one can find the new integral equa-
hybridization scheme. In this way, the total currents induced in tions
the horn surface are described as a sum of several contributions,
each of them caused by a successive reflection of the fields
from the reflector. Consequently, the complete CFIE and MFIE
valid in the presence of the reflector may be decomposed in
several pairs of integral equations. All these equations have the (11)
unknown side identical to the one imposed in the free-space.
Hence, the new approach to analyze the coupling between
CCH and reflector dish has the advantage to use the same MoM
matrices of the horn in free-space; only the known terms are
changed. The linear system is solved iteratively: the first time
(12)
with the feeding waveguide modes and the next times with the
contributions induced by the reflector as forcing terms. This
Decomposing the two series (11) and (12) and exploiting the
yields to an iterative procedure which stops when a convergence
knowledge of the non perturbed problem, (1) and (2), it is pos-
of the solution is obtained.
sible to develop an iterative procedure to evaluate every pertur-
Because of the presence of the external structure, both the bative contribution from the previous one.
equivalence electric and magnetic currents on the CCH surface For example, the perturbative currents of the first order de-
change. Thus the integral (1) and (2) are still valid with some pend on the non perturbed currents
changes. In the framework of a perturbative technique (see for
example [11]) the following series expansion for the currents (13)
can be assumed (14)
In general, for the term of order (with )
(15)
(16)

(7) When the procedure stops the only terms which are ne-
glected in (11) and (12) are and .
598
Fig. 3. Perturbative technique architecture: on the left side the input of the
generic block is the scattered field as computed by the preceding block, whereas
i
the outputs are the perturbative currents and the forcing terms for the following
block; on the right side the th block has been exploded to show the numerical
techniques used to evaluate both the currents and the scattered field.
A possible convergence criterion consists in stopping the iter-
ations when the most delicate parameter, in this case , do
not change appreciably (see Table II). A good convergence is
reached at iteration when
The pairs of equations involve the same operators so
that a unique formulation of MoM can be used. The forcing
terms in (15) and (16) are evaluated via the asymptotic technique
described in the next section.
The internal problem can be solved exactly like the isolated
horn. The only difference in the coupling case is in the magnetic
current distribution, which represents the forcing term of the
internal problem and it is relative to perturbative contributions as
in (7). Hence, the reflection coefficient at the horn throat is now
obtained as summation of different contributions associated to
each iteration step.
Fig. 3 shows a sketch of the hybrid procedure proposed. As
a first step integral (1) and (2) are solved, via MM and MoM,
obtaining the non perturbed currents, , for the CCH in
free-space. In the second step, these currents are used to evaluate
the fields scattered by the reflector. Then, in the third step, the
scattered fields are used as forcing terms to solve (13) and (14),
where the unknowns are now the perturbative currents, . compared to the overall size of the reflector surface. The GB
This procedure is iterated until a convergence of the perturbative
contribution is obtained. Finally, all current contributions are
combined as in (7).
IV. EVALUATION OF THE PERTURBATIVE CONTRIBUTION
The evaluation of the perturbative contribution requires the
computation of the electric and magnetic fields on the external
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2006
M
Fig. 4. Expansion of the incident field in a set of equally spaced rotationally
M
symmetric GBs; the field scattered by the reflector is obtained as a superposition
of contributions associated to the GBs.
surface of the feed horn taking into account the scattering from
the reflector.
It is important to note that in the evaluation of the electro-
magnetic field generated by the internal and external parts of the
horn, full-wave techniques like MM and MoM may be used. On
the contrary, in the evaluation of the field backscattered from the
reflector, only some asymptotic approximations may by imple-
mented. These asymptotic approximations should be extremely
fast to be run iteratively. Usually the PO is adopted; unfortu-
nately the traditional PO is extremely heavy computationally
and, for this reason, it is not indicated in one iterative technique.
One could use ray-based techniques but they are not always ac-
curate.
(17)
In this work a closed form PO-based GB analysis technique
is employed. This technique completely avoids any numerical
evaluation of integrals and it has demonstrated high accuracy
and efficiency [13].
As shown in Fig. 4, inside the angular region enclosed by a
cone, with its tip in the feed phase center and subtending the
reflector surface, the incident field radiated by the feed horn is
expanded in terms of GBs.
The expansion used in this work is not a Gabor expansion,
[14], for two main reasons. The Gabor expansion gives rise to
GBs with non uniform interbeam spacing at launch, thus pro-
viding less control on the choice of the initial beam parameters.
Second, in a Gabor expansion the evaluation of beam parame-
ters is quite complicated because it requires the computation of
biorthogonality integrals. In the approach presented here all the
GBs are rotationally symmetric and directed so that the angular
interbeam spacing is almost the same for all the GBs. Each GB
generates a spot area on the reflector which is relatively small
amplitude decays in the direction transversal to the beam axis.
The th incident GB, like in [15], is characterized by a magnetic
field
(18)
BOLLI et al.: HYBRID PERTURBATIVE TECHNIQUE TO CHARACTERIZE THE COUPLING
TABLE I
CPU TIME FOR THE FGBAPO AND THE PO
where are local coordinates fixed in the th propa-
gating GB launched by the feed point; is a real parameter
which is responsible for the transversal GB amplitude decaying;
is the wave number; is the polarization unit vector.
The complex amplitude of each GB is determined via a point
matching procedure. It is important to note that the complex am-
plitudes are chosen to match the far zone field of the feed an-
tenna which illuminates the reflector, consequently only propa-
gating GBs are considered in the expansion. The expansion pro-
cedure permits to match any kind of incident pattern, even in
presence of horn higher azimuthal modes which can be excited
by an off-axis configuration.
Once the point matching has been applied, the total field
scattered by the reflector is calculated as a superposition of
independent contributions associated to each single GB. The
problem of the evaluation of the total scattered field is therefore
reduced to the evaluation of the contribution relevant to the
single GB impinging on the reflector.
In the hypothesis that the reflector is characterized by a
perfectly conducting smooth surface, the reflected and dif-
fracted fields relevant to the single GB can be evaluated in
closed form via a uniform asymptotic saddle point PO-based
method, avoiding any numerical evaluation of surface radiation
integrals. The main advantage of this PO-based GBs analysis
procedure is that it is very accurate and it remains valid also in
those regions where ray techniques fail. Furthermore, it is also
very efficient even when dealing with large structures and when
near field computations are required. In facts, since the single
GB has a small spot area on the reflector, an observation point
not too close to the reflector can still be considered in the far
field region with respect to the portion of the reflector surface
actually illuminated by the GB.
The contribution relevant to each GB takes the form
(19)
where is the position vector, which determines the observation
point; is the field scattered by the reflector when a single
GB impinges on it; is the field reflection contribution,
the only one that is present when the incident GB strikes the
reflecting surface sufficiently far from any part of the edge so
that, due to the exponential decay of the GB away from its axis,
the resulting edge diffraction effects become negligible; is
the transition function which modifies the reflected field when
edge-diffracted contributions become significant; finally,
is the diffracted component of the field caused by the presence
of the edge. In (19) the vector can represent both electric, ,
and magnetic, , fields.
599
It is important to note that this PO is extremely fast and, for
this reason, can be easily iterated in the perturbative approach.
Table I shows the typical computational times needed to run
the FGBAPO technique, as a function of the reflector diameter,
on a Pentium III personal computer with a 1.2 GHz clock [13].
For comparison, PO analyzes have been implemented using the
commercial software simulator GRASP8 [16].
V. NUMERICAL RESULTS
In this section, some numerical results are shown. The
co-polar and the cross-polar patterns of a circular horn are
evaluated with the hybrid perturbative technique and with a
rigorous numerical technique [17].
The horn is a classical primary focus feed, designed for radio
astronomy applications. In the numerical analysis the feed, op-
erating at 22 GHz, is placed in the focus of a paraboloidal mirror
(1 m focal length and 3.125 m diameter) and it illuminates the
reflector edge with a taper level of about dB.
The horn diameter is 10.72 mm and the horn length
is 130 mm . In order to enhance the cross-polar perfor-
mance of the horn some external corrugations are introduced.
The corrugations are realized on the horn flange which is a cir-
cular ring with a length of 13 mm : they consist of three
slots with a depth of and a width of .
Initially, for the stand-alone horn, a full-wave analysis with
the commercial software FEKO [17] has been done. An excel-
lent agreement between the results obtained with our MoM-MM
technique and the MoM-based FEKO results can be observed
in Fig. 5. In this figure the co-polar and cross-polar patterns are
evaluated in the plane.
Then, the feed co-polar and cross-polar patterns are eval-
uated considering the presence of the reflector. In Fig. 6 the
co-polar patterns are plotted; the curve relevant to the pertur-
bative component is sketched as well. As it can be observed,
the feed co-polar pattern curves do not differ significantly, es-
pecially inside the cone subtending the reflector (cone aperture
angle about 76 ). Vice versa, for the cross-polar pattern in Fig. 7,
the modifications caused by the reflector are appreciable even in
the angular region that contributes to illuminating the reflector.
In this case the perturbative contribution (dotted line) becomes
significant.
For this configuration, the reflection coefficient has been
evaluated. Table II shows the simulated reflection coefficient for
several iteration steps. The convergence to the second decimal
digit is reached at the step number three. The 0-order iteration
corresponds to the feed in the free-space. The computation time
600
Fig. 5. Comparison between patterns obtained with the technique here
proposed and FEKO analysis.
Fig. 6. Feed co-polar pattern relative to non perturbed radiated field (solid
line), perturbed field (dashed line) and perturbative contribution (dotted line).
for each iteration is about few minutes on a 1.2 GHz clock per-
sonal computer.
VI. MEASUREMENT VALIDATIONS
In this section some measurements to characterize the elec-
tromagnetic coupling between a circular corrugated feed horn
and a nonoffset parabolic reflector are presented.
In order to validate the theory presented in this paper, a
horn feeding an axially symmetric reflector antenna system
operating in -band is analyzed. The reflector is a commer-
cial paraboloidal mirror with a 88 cm diameter and a 30 cm
focal length . The reflector is illuminated by a
circular feed with an aperture radius of 10 mm, opening on a
circular corona shaped flange having an external radius of 30
mm. The whole system has been placed outdoor at the Arcetri
Astrophysical Observatory in Florence. This configuration
permits to do measurements in a configuration with the feed
accurately aligned along the optical axis and the feed phase
center precisely positioned in the paraboloid focus. A Vector
Network Analyzer (VNA) based setup has been arranged, with
the feed connected to the VNA via, in sequence, a circular to
rectangular waveguide standard WR90 transition, a WR90 to
N-type coaxial transition, a N to K-type coaxial transition and
a K-type coaxial cable. In order to avoid spurious scattering ef-
fects, eccosorb material has been used to cover the surrounding
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2006
Fig. 7. Feed cross-polar pattern relative to non perturbed radiated field (solid
line), perturbed field (dashed line) and perturbative contribution (dotted line).
TABLE II
REFLECTION COEFFICIENT FOR DIFFERENT ITERATION STEPS.
floor, the dielectric arm supporting the feed and the metallic
parts of the feed backside.
A very accurate model of the horn external surface has been
used for simulations: in the MoM analysis, the induced cur-
rents along the generatrix of both the aperture and the flange
have been decomposed in 30 triangles sub-sections. Moreover
the incident field on the paraboloid is expanded in 100 gaussian
beams.
Two different measurements have been done in the frequency
range from 9.5 to 10.5 GHz, where the only propagating mode
in the circular waveguide feed is the fundamental .
In the first one, a circular waveguide calibration kit, con-
sisting of a short circuit, an offset short circuit and a sliding load
(two positions), is used to calibrate the instrument at the radi-
ating aperture section of the circular feed ( of Fig. 1). Be-
cause of this calibration, the reflection coefficient directly read
on the VNA accounts for the effects of the aperture disconti-
nuity and of the flange.
Data have been acquired both without and with the reflector
and the plots are respectively in Figs. 8 and 9. In these figures,
the amplitude and phase of the reflection coefficient obtained
with measurements and simulations are compared. As expected,
in the free-space feed operation [see Fig. 8(a)], the amplitude
of the reflection coefficient versus frequency decreases with an
almost linear (in dB) and monotonic law. Similar considerations
may be done for the phase: an almost constant value is traced
[see Fig. 8(b)].
Differently, the presence of mirror produces stationary waves
highlighted by the fluctuating shape of the amplitude curves [see
Fig. 9(a)], and an oscillatory behavior in the phase curves [see
Fig. 9(b)]. In this case a first-order perturbative contribution is
considered [ , see (7)].
In Fig. 9, it is evident a frequency shift between the black con-
tinuous line, representing the measurements, and the gray line
representing the simulations with the feed positioned in the re-
flector focus. The simplest explanation for this shift seems a not
BOLLI et al.: HYBRID PERTURBATIVE TECHNIQUE TO CHARACTERIZE THE COUPLING 601

Fig. 8. Total reflection coefficient simulated and measured for free-space

environment: (a) amplitude; (b) phase. Fig. 9. Total reflection coefficient simulated and measured in the presence of
reflector: (a) amplitude; (b) phase.

perfect positioning in the measurements of the feed in the re-

flector focus. Indeed, in our outdoor measurements set-up it is
difficult to guarantee a positioning accuracy better than 1 mm.
For this reason, new simulations have been implemented consid-
ering the feed slightly out of the focus. In particular, just moving
the feed 2.5 mm (about at the central frequency) further
from the focus along the line focus-centre of the reflector, one
can obtain with the numerical simulations the black dashed line
which fits better the measured results. Another possible cause
of uncertainty is the instrument error which is about dB.
Anyway, a good agreement between the measurements and the
simulations has been achieved and the delicate and weak cou-
pling term reflector-feed has been approximated with a good
accuracy.
Fig. 10. Reflector antenna contribution to the reflection coefficient amplitude.
In the second measurement, a circular waveguide calibration
kit, consisting of a short circuit, an offset short circuit and the
free-space radiating feed as matched load, is used. This proce- noise level. The continue curve shows the behavior of mea-
dure guarantees the calibration at the radiating aperture section sured in presence of the reflector. Two different approximations
of the circular feed removing, in the reflection coefficient, the in the simulated results have been done: one gives the first wave
effects of the aperture discontinuity and of the flange. Thus, bounce contribution from the reflector and is associated to the
in this second case, the measurement gives a more accu- first step of the iteration; the other accounts for both the first and
rate estimation of the contribution associated to the presence of the second wave bounce and is associated to two iteration steps.
the reflector since it is the only one measured. This fact pro- It has to be noticed that this kind of measurement accurately puts
duces also lower levels of the reflection coefficient amplitude, in evidence higher order effects caused by the coupling between
as the plots in Fig. 10 show. Obviously, even the numerical re- feed and reflector. In this case a good convergence of the pertur-
sults of are now obtained with only the contribution of the bative approach has been reached at the second iterative step.
reflector dish. The dashed line on the bottom is the measured As it can be seen from the simulation associated to the second
reflection coefficient after calibration with the feed “observing” step of the iteration, a residual ripple generated by secondary
the free-space. Hence it can be associated to the instrument setup order scattering effects, appears. This was not perceptible in the
602
Fig. 11. Variation in the complex reflection coefficient as a function of axial
feed displacement.
previous measurements, being very low in level compared to the
other contributions. Even in this case a good agreement between
simulations and measurement is obtained (tolerance at this level
is approximately dB).
At 10 GHz additional simulations have been done for the total
reflection coefficient as a function of the axial displacement of
the feed from the paraboloidal focus [1]. The feed was able to
slide along the reflector axis, thus enabling the reflector to be po-
sitioned at any given distance from the feed aperture. In Fig. 11
the complex reflection coefficient shows the expected period-
icity for an axial displacement of (negative values denote a
shift toward the reflector). Moreover, in the same figure, one can
appreciate the difference of the reflection coefficient evaluated
in the free-space and in the presence of the reflector antenna.
VII. CONCLUSION
A hybrid technique for the analysis of the coupling between
a circular corrugated horn and a reflector antenna has been pre-
sented.
The rigorous approach to solve the electromagnetical
problem where a horn radiates in the presence of a reflector
would require the implementation of a full-wave technique like
the MoM on the overall system. This becomes computationally
very demanding when dealing with electrically large reflectors.
An alternative approximate approach consists in combining
the MoM and a high frequency technique (GTD or PO) into a
hybrid technique. More precisely one can limit the application
of the MoM to the characterization of the horn exterior part and
use a high frequency technique to take into account the field
contribution associated to the scattering from the reflector.
In this paper a further progress has been done to obtain a more
accurate estimation of the feed-reflector coupling by keeping
the complexity and the calculation times reasonable. In fact the
perturbative approach here proposed allows one to make use of
the same set of integral equations used for the horn radiating in
free-space. To get a higher accuracy, the perturbative approach
may be iterated. Effects caused by the presence of the mirror
on the horn electromagnetic performance are estimated with an
asymptotic physical optics technique.
Numerical results and measurements have been presented to
demonstrate the validity and the accuracy of the new technique.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 54, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2006
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank S. Mariotti of the Institute
of Radioastronomy—National Institute for Astrophysics
(IRA-INAF) for his help during the reflection coefficient mea-
surements. The authors are grateful to the editor and to the three
anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to significantly
improve this manuscript.
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Pietro Bolli (M’99) was born in Arezzo, Italy, in
1973. He received the Laurea degree in electronic
engineering and the Ph.D. degree in computer sci-
ence and telecommunications, from the University
of Florence, Florence, Italy, in 1999 and 2003,
respectively.
In 1999, he worked under a research grant at the
Arcetri Asitrophysical Observatory and in 2001 he
was a Visiting Fellow at the National Astronomy and
Ionosphere Center, in Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
He is currently a Research Engineer at Institute of Ra-
dioastronomy, Bologna, where he conducts research on electromagnetic aspects
of instrumentation for radio astronomy application. His current research inter-
ests encompass electromagnetic analysis of large reflector antennas and pas-
sive microwave devices, with particular emphasis on electromagnetic coupling
among circular horns in feed-array systems.
BOLLI et al.: HYBRID PERTURBATIVE TECHNIQUE TO CHARACTERIZE THE COUPLING
Gian Guido Gentili was born in Turin, Italy, in 1961.
He received the degree in electronic engineering from
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 1987.
In 1989, he joined the National Research Council
(CNR), Centre for Space Telecommunications
(CSTS), Politecnico di Milano, Dip. Elettronica e
Informazione, as a Researcher. In 2001,he became
Senior CNR Researcher, and in 2002 he became
an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano.
His main research interests are in the field on nu-
merical method for electromagnetics, antennas and
microwave passive devices.
Leonardo Lucci was born in Florence, Italy, on
April 13th, 1973. He received the Laurea degree
(cum laude) in electronic engineering from the
University of Florence, in 2001.
From 2001 to June 2002, he was with the Univer-
sity of Florence where he worked under a one-year
research grant in collaboration with the Arcetri
Astrophysical Observatory of National Institute
for Astrophysics (INAF) until June 2002. From
June to September 2002 he was a stagiaire at the
European Space Research and Technology Centre,
ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Since January 2002, he has been
a Ph.D. student in Informatics and Telecommunications at the University
of Florence. His research interests include high-frequency techniques for
scattering problems and analysis and optimization of circular corrugated horns
for radio-astronomy applications.
Renzo Nesti was born in Pistoia, Italy, on Feb. 13,
1967. He received the Laura degree in electronic
engineering and the Ph.D. in computer science and
telecommunications from the University of Florence,
Florence, Italy, in 1996 and 2000, respectively.
Since December 1999, he has been with the Na-
tional Institute for Astrophysics at the Arcetri Astro-
physical Observatory in Florence where his main ac-
tivity is in the area of passive microwave devices for
radio astronomy receivers. His research interests in-
clude numerical methods for the EM analysis and de-
sign of millimeter wave components.
603
Giuseppe Pelosi (M’88–SM’91–F’00) was born in
Pisa, Italy. He received the laurea (doctor) degree in
physics (summa cum laude) from the University of
Florence, Florence, Italy, in 1976.
Since 1979, he has been with the Department of
Electronics and Telecommunications, University of
Florence, where he is currently a full Professor. He
was a Visiting Scientist at McGill University, Mon-
treal, PQ, Canada, in 1994 and 1995. He has been
mainly involved in research in the field of numer-
ical and asymptotic techniques for applied electro-
magnetics. He is coauthor of Finite Elements for Wave Electromagnetics (New
York: IEEE Press, 1994) Finite Element Software for Microwave Engineering
(New York: Wiley, 1996), and Quick Finite Elements for Electromagnetic Fields
(Reading, MA: Artech House, 1998). His past research included extensions and
applications of the geometrical theory of diffraction as well as methods for
radar cross-section analysis of complex targets. His current research activity
is mainly devoted to the development of numerical procedures in the context
of the finite-element method, with particular emphasis on microwave and mil-
limeter-wave engineering (antennas, circuits, devices, and scattering problems).
Prof. Pelosi is a Member of the Board of the Directors of the Applied Com-
putational Electromagnetics Society.
Giovanni Toso (M’95) was born in La Spezia, Italy,
in 1967. He received the Laurea degree (cum laude)
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Florence, Florence, Italy, in 1992
and 1995, respectively.
From 1994–1996, he was Visiting Scholar at the
Laboratoire d’Optique Electromagntique, University
of Aix-Marseille III, France. From 1997 to 1999, he
was a Postdoctoral Student at the University of Flo-
rence. In 1999, he was a Visiting Scholar at UCLA
with a grant of the Italian National Council of Re-
searches (NCR) and received a scholarship from Alenia Aerospazio, Rome,
Italy. From 1993 to 2000, he gave several lectures on electromagnetic fields,
microwaves and antennas at the University of Florence. Since 2000, he has
been working in the Antenna and Sub-Millimeter Wave Section of the Euro-
pean Space Agency, ESA-ESTEC, The Netherlands. His interests are mainly in
the field of analytical and numerical techniques as applied to antennas and scat-
tering problems.