Study of the impact to the beam isolation from the reflector holddown holes

This paper constrains itself to the antenna design and optimization that requires shaping of the reflector surface to meet the coverage specifications. In this case, the side lobe suppression is also achieved by surface shaping to meet the isolation requirements. The hold down holes on a deployable reflector, if not taken into account during the optimization, may adversely increase the side lobe level and cause the non-compliance to the isolation specs that would otherwise be met if the surface had no holes. This topic first studies how hold down holes would contribute to the side lobe of a beam, then proposes a method to include the holes in the reflector shaping process so that its impact is minimized or compensated.