Gridded Vivaldi Antenna Feed System for the Northern Cross Radio Telescope

Author

Virone, Giuseppe ; Sarkis, Rémi ; Craeye, Christophe ; Addamo, Giuseppe ; Peverini, Oscar Antonio

Author_Institution

Ist. di Elettron. ed Ing. dell´´Inf. e delle Telecomun. (IEIIT), Consiglio Naz. delle Ric. (CNR), Turin, Italy

Volume

59

Issue

6

fYear

2011

fDate

6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1963

Lastpage

1971

Abstract

The design of a broadband antenna feed system for the cylindrical offset parabolic reflector of the Italian Northern Cross radio telescope is described. Its operative frequency band spans from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) upper band, i.e. 120-240 MHz, to the present telescope operative band centered at 408 MHz. The proposed configuration consists of a linear array of gridded Vivaldi (tapered slot) radiators inside a wired subreflector. Numerical simulations have been carried out using both commercial software and a specialized Method-of-Moments approach. They show that the designed feed system provides both a good impedance matching and an efficient illumination of the main reflector in the overall frequency band.

Keywords

broadband antennas; linear antenna arrays; method of moments; radiotelescopes; reflector antenna feeds; Italian Northern Cross radio telescope; broadband antenna feed system; cylindrical offset parabolic reflector; frequency 120 MHz to 240 MHz; frequency 408 MHz; gridded Vivaldi antenna feed system; gridded Vivaldi radiators; impedance matching; low frequency array; method-of-moments; numerical simulations; wired subreflector; Antenna radiation patterns; Arrays; Feeds; Finite element methods; Moment methods; Radio astronomy; Reflection; Antenna arrays; radio astronomy; reflector antennas; square kilometer array (SKA);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-926X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TAP.2011.2122227

Filename

5722996