Title :
An axi-symmetric segmented composite SKA dish design: Performance and production analysis
Author :
Ivashina, M.V. ; Bakker, R. ; De Vaate, J. G Bij ; Iupikov, O.A. ; Arts, M. ; Dekker, J. ; van Ardenne, A.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Earth & Space Sci., CHALMERS Univ. of Technol., Gothenburg, Sweden
Abstract :
A concept of an axi-symmetric dish as antenna reflector for the next generation radio telescope - the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - is presented. The reflector is based on the use of novel thermoplastic composite material (reinforced with carbon fibre) in the context of the telescope design with wide band single pixel feeds. The baseline of this design represents an array of 100´s to 1000´s reflector antennas of 15-m diameter and covers frequencies from 1 to 10 GHz. The purpose of our study is the analysis of the production cost of the dish and its performance in combination with a realistic wideband feed (such as the `Eleven Antenna´ feed) over a wide frequency band and a range of elevation angles. The presented initial simulation results indicate the potential of the proposed dish concept for low-cost and mass production and demonstrate sensitivity comparable to that of the presently considered off-set Gregorian reflector antenna with the same projected aperture area. We expect this observation to be independent of the choice of the feed, as several other single-pixel wideband feeds (that have been reported in the literature) have similar beamwidth and phase center location, both being rather constant with frequency.
Keywords :
antenna arrays; radiotelescopes; reflector antenna feeds; axi-symmetric segmented composite SKA dish design; carbon fibre; frequency 1 GHz to 10 GHz; next generation radio telescope; off-set Gregorian reflector antenna; reflector antennas; size 15 m; square kilometre array; telescope design; thermoplastic composite material; wide band single pixel feeds; Antenna feeds; Aperture antennas; Noise; Radio astronomy; Reflector antennas; Sensitivity; axi-symmetric; composite materials; displaced-axis dual reflector systems; radio astronomy; reflector antenna feeds; wideband antenna;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Conference Proceedings (APMC), 2011 Asia-Pacific
Conference_Location :
Melbourne, VIC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-2034-5