A versatile reflector antenna pattern computation method: shooting and bouncing rays

Results are presented for a numerical method used in calculating the secondary pattern of a reflector. The method, called the shooting and bounding ray (SBR) technique, is an aperture integration method with additional versatility allowing minor changes in reflector geometry without requiring extensive modification of the computational method used. SBR can accommodate changing antenna configurations such as a tilting main reflector, as well as radome and antenna surface coating effects, which cannot be conveniently handled with a physical-optics analysis. The method was applied to a symmetrical Cassegrain antenna. The results are compared to those predicted using a conventional geometric-optics-physical-optics approach.<>