Chapter 6

Reflector Antennas

6.1 Introduction
High-gain antennas are required for long-distance radio communications
(radio-relay links and satellite links), high-resolution radars, radio-astronomy,
etc. Reflector systems are probably the most widely used high-gain anten-
nas. They can easily achieve gains of above 30 dB for microwave and higher
frequencies. Reflector antennas operate on principles known long ago from
geometrical optics (GO). The first RF reflector system was made by Hertz
back in 1888 (a cylindrical reflector fed by a dipole). However, the art of
accurately designing such antenna systems was developed mainly during the
days of WW2 when numerous radar applications evolved.

The simplest reflector antenna consists of two components: a reflecting sur-

face and a much smaller feed antenna, which often is located at the reflectors
focal point. Constructions that are more complex involve a secondary re-
flector (a subreflector) at the focal point, which is illuminated by a primary
feed. These are called dual-reflector antennas. The most popular reflector is
the parabolic one. Other reflectors often met in practice are: the cylindrical
reflector, the corner reflector, spherical reflector, and others.

6.2 Parabolic Antennas

A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved
surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio
waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called
a dish antenna or parabolic dish. The main advantage of a parabolic antenna
is that it is highly directive; it functions similarly to a searchlight or flashlight
reflector to direct the radio waves in a narrow beam, or receive radio waves
from one particular direction only. Parabolic antennas have some of the
highest gains, that is they can produce the narrowest beam width angles,

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 Class Notes on ECEG-6308
6.2. PARABOLIC ANTENNAS Analysis and Design of Antennas

of any antenna type. In order to achieve narrow beamwidths, the parabolic

reflector must be much larger than the wavelength of the radio waves used, so
parabolic antennas are used in the high frequency part of the radio spectrum,
at UHF and microwave (SHF) frequencies, at which wavelengths are small
enough that conveniently sized dishes can be used.
Parabolic antennas are used as high-gain antennas for point-to-point com-
munication, in applications such as microwave relay links that carry tele-
phone and television signals between nearby cities, wireless WAN/LAN links
for data communications, satellite and spacecraft communication antennas,
and radio telescopes. Their other large use is in radar antennas, which
need to emit a narrow beam of radio waves to locate objects like ships and
airplanes. With the advent of home satellite television dishes, parabolic
antennas have become a ubiquitous feature of the modern landscape.

6.2.1 Design
The operating principle of a parabolic antenna is that a point source of
radio waves at the focal point in front of a parabolic reflector of conductive
material will be reflected into a collimated plane wave beam along the axis
of the reflector. Conversely, an incoming plane wave parallel to the axis will
be focused to a point at the focal point.

Figure 6.1: In a parabolic antenna, incoming parallel radio waves (Q1 − Q3 )

are reflected to a point at the dish’s focus (F ), where they are received by
a small feed antenna.

A typical parabolic antenna consists of a metal parabolic reflector with a

small feed antenna suspended in front of the reflector at its focus, pointed
back toward the reflector. The reflector is a metallic surface formed into a
paraboloid of revolution and usually truncated in a circular rim that forms
the diameter of the antenna. In a transmitting antenna, radio frequency
current from a transmitter is supplied through a transmission line cable to
the feed antenna, which converts it into radio waves. The radio waves are
emitted back toward the dish by the feed antenna and reflect off the dish into
a parallel beam. In a receiving antenna the incoming radio waves bounce
off the dish and are focussed to a point at the feed antenna, which converts

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6.2. PARABOLIC ANTENNAS Analysis and Design of Antennas

them to electric currents which travel through a transmission line to the

receiver.

6.2.2 Reflector
The reflector can be of sheet metal, metal screen, or wire grill construction,
and it can be either a circular dish or various other shapes to create different
beam shapes. A metal screen reflects radio waves as well as a solid metal
surface as long as the holes are smaller than 1/10 of a wavelength, so screen
reflectors are often used to reduce weight and wind loads on the dish. To
achieve the maximum gain, it is necessary that the shape of the dish be
accurate within a small fraction of a wavelength, to ensure the waves from
different parts of the antenna arrive at the focus in phase. Large dishes often
require a supporting truss structure behind them to provide the required
stiffness. Feed antenna

6.2.3 Feed Antenna

The feed antenna at the reflector’s focus is typically a low-gain type such as
a half-wave dipole or more often a small horn antenna called a feed horn. In
more complex designs, such as the Cassegrain and Gregorian, a secondary
reflector is used to direct the energy into the parabolic reflector from a feed
antenna located away from the primary focal point. The feed antenna is
connected to the associated radio-frequency (RF) transmitting or receiving
equipment by means of a coaxial cable transmission line or waveguide.
An advantage of parabolic antennas is that most of the structure of the
antenna (all of it except the feed antenna) is nonresonant, so it can function
over a wide range of frequencies, that is a wide bandwidth. All that is
necessary to change the frequency of operation is to replace the feed antenna
with one that works at the new frequency. Some parabolic antennas transmit
or receive at multiple frequencies by having several feed antennas mounted
at the focal point, close together.

Figure 6.2: Dish Parabolic Antennas.

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6.2. PARABOLIC ANTENNAS Analysis and Design of Antennas

Figure 6.3: Cylindrical Parabolic Antennas.

6.2.4 Types
Parabolic antennas are distinguished by their shapes:
• Paraboloidal or dish - The reflector is shaped like a paraboloid.
This is the most common type. It radiates a narrow pencil-shaped
beam along the axis of the dish.

• Shrouded dish - Sometimes a cylindrical metal shield is attached

to the rim of the dish. The shroud shields the antenna from radia-
tion from angles outside the main beam axis, reducing the sidelobes.
It is sometimes used to prevent interference in terrestrial microwave
links, where several antennas using the same frequency are located
close together. The shroud is coated inside with microwave absorbent
material. Shrouds can reduce back lobe radiation by 10 dB.

• Cylindrical - The reflector is curved in only one direction and flat

in the other. The radio waves come to a focus not at a point but
along a line. The feed is sometimes a dipole antenna located along the
focal line. Cylindrical parabolic antennas radiate a fan-shaped beam,
narrow in the curved dimension, and wide in the uncurved dimension.
The curved ends of the reflector are sometimes capped by flat plates,
to prevent radiation out the ends, and this is called a pillbox antenna.

• ‘Orange peel’ - Another type is very long and narrow, shaped like
the letter ‘C’. This is called an orange peel design, and radiates an
even wider fan beam. It is often used for radar antennas.
They are also classified by the type of feed; how the radio waves are supplied
to the antenna:
• Axial or front feed - This is the most common type of feed, with
the feed antenna located in front of the dish at the focus, on the beam

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6.3. PRINCIPLES Analysis and Design of Antennas

axis. A disadvantage of this type is that the feed and its supports
block some of the beam, which limits the aperture efficiency to only
55 - 60%.

• Offset or off-axis feed - The reflector is an asymmetrical segment

of a paraboloid, so the focus, and the feed antenna, are located to
one side of the dish. The purpose of this design is to move the feed
structure out of the beam path, so it doesn’t block the beam. It is
widely used in home satellite television dishes, which are small enough
that the feed structure would otherwise block a significant percentage
of the signal.

• Cassegrain - In a Cassegrain antenna the feed is located on or behind

the dish, and radiates forward, illuminating a convex hyperboloidal
secondary reflector at the focus of the dish. The radio waves from the
feed reflect back off the secondary reflector to the dish, which forms
the outgoing beam. An advantage of this configuration is that the
feed, with its waveguides and ‘front end’ electronics does not have to
be suspended in front of the dish, so it is used for antennas with com-
plicated or bulky feeds, such as large satellite communication antennas
and radio telescopes. Aperture efficiency is on the order of 65 - 70%

• Gregorian - Similar to the Cassegrain design except that the sec-

ondary reflector is concave, (ellipsoidal) in shape. Aperture efficiency
over 70% can be achieved.

Figure 6.4: Main types of parabolic antenna feeds.

6.3 Principles of Parabolic Reflectors

The parabolic surface has the useful property of being able to convert a
diverging spherical wavefront into a parallel plane wavefront, thereby pro-
ducing a highly focussed or narrow beam.

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6.3. PRINCIPLES Analysis and Design of Antennas

In Figure 6.5, all the rays leaving F after reflection from the surface emerge
parallel to one another and reach the plane RR’ at the same time and so
form an equiphase wavefront. Hence, we have F P + P Q = F P 0 + P 0 Q0 =
a constant. To find the equation of the parabolic surface:

Figure 6.5: Two dimensional configuration of a paraboloidal reflector.

F P + P Q = const
p
⇒ (f − x)2 + y 2 + (f − x) = const
but y = 0 when x = 0
⇒ const = 2f

∴ y 2 = 4f x equation of a parabola. (6.1)

Usually the focus F is at the plane wavefront. Hence, D = 4f is the di-
ameter of the aperture. More generally, the f /D ratio is important and in
practice varies from 0.25 to 0.5. If the ratio is too low, the reflector is not
properly illuminated by radiation leaving the focal point and if too large,
radiation is lost over the rim of the parabolic surface as pill-over.

The collimating property of the parabolic reflector is easily established after

finding the unit normal of the parabola,
∇Sp
n= (6.2)
|∇Sp |

where
Sp = y 2 − 4f x = 0 (6.3)

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6.4. GAIN Analysis and Design of Antennas

is the parabolic curve equation (see 6.1). After applying the ∇ operation,
we obtain
∇Sp = −4f ax + 2yay
therefore
−4f ax + 2yay
n= p (6.4)
16f 2 + 4y 2
To show the collimating property of the parabolic reflector, we proved that
for any angle of incidence the reflected wave is x-directed; i.e., α = β

cos β = n · ax
−4f
⇒ cos β = p (6.5)
16f 2 + 4y 2
To determine α, first find the unit vector vn along P F

(f − x)ax − yay
vn = p
(f − x)2 + y 2
(f − x)ax − yay
=
f +x

Therefore, after some simplifications and noting y 2 = 4f x

−4f
cos α = n · vn = p (6.6)
16f 2 + 4y 2

so that α = β.

6.4 Gain
The gain of a parabolic antenna,which is the ratio of the power received by
the antenna from a source along its beam axis to the power received by a
hypothetical isotropic antenna, is:

4πA π 2 d2
G= e A = A (6.7)
λ2 λ2
where

• A is the area of the antenna aperture, that is, the mouth of the
parabolic reflector

• d is the diameter of the parabolic reflector

• λ is the wavelength of the radio waves.

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6.4. GAIN Analysis and Design of Antennas

• A is a dimensionless parameter between 0 and 1 called the aperture

efficiency. The aperture efficiency of typical parabolic antennas is 0.55
to 0.70.

It can be seen that, as with any aperture antenna, the larger the aperture is,
compared to the wavelength, the higher the gain. The gain increases with
the square of the ratio of aperture width to wavelength, so large parabolic
antennas, such as those used for spacecraft communication and radio tele-
scopes, can have extremely high gain. For example applying the above
formula to the 25-meter-diameter radio telescope antenna at a wavelength
of 21 cm (1.42 GHz, a common radio astronomy frequency) yields an ap-
proximate maximum gain of 140,000 times or about 50 dBi (decibels above
the isotropic level).

Aperture efficiency A is a catchall variable which accounts for various losses

that reduce the gain of the antenna from the maximum that could be
achieved with the given aperture. The major factors reducing the aperture
efficiency in parabolic antennas are:

• Feed spillover - Some of the radiation from the feed antenna falls
outside the edge of the dish and so doesn’t contribute to the main
beam.

• Feed illumination taper - The maximum gain for any aperture antenna
is only achieved when the intensity of the radiated beam is constant
across the entire aperture area. However the radiation pattern from
the feed antenna usually tapers off toward the outer part of the dish,
so the outer parts of the dish are ‘illuminated’ with a lower intensity of
radiation. Even if the feed provided constant illumination across the
angle subtended by the dish, the outer parts of the dish are farther
away from the feed antenna than the inner parts, so the intensity would
drop off with distance from the center. So the intensity of the beam
radiated by a parabolic antenna is maximum at the center of the dish
and falls off with distance from the axis, reducing the efficiency.

• Aperture blockage - In front-fed parabolic dishes where the feed an-

tenna is located in front of the dish in the beam path (and in Cassegrain
and Gregorian designs as well), the feed structure and its supports
block some of the beam. In small dishes such as home satellite dishes,
where the size of the feed structure is comparable with the size of the
dish, this can seriously reduce the antenna gain. To prevent this prob-
lem these types of antennas often use an offset feed, where the feed
antenna is located to one side, outside the beam area. The aperture
efficiency for these types of antennas can reach 0.7 to 0.8.

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6.5. BEAMWIDTH Analysis and Design of Antennas

• Shape errors - random surface errors in the shape of the reflector re-
duce efficiency.

6.5 Beamwidth
For parabolic antennas, the HPBW angle Θ is given by:

Θ = kλ/d (6.8)

where k is a factor which depends on the shape of the reflector and the feed
illumination pattern. For a typical parabolic antenna k = 70 when Θ is in
degrees.

For a typical 2 meter satellite dish operating on C band (4 GHz), this formula
gives a beamwidth of about 2.6◦ . For the Arecibo antenna (the largest dish
antenna in the world, the radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory, Puerto
Rico, 1000 feet (305 meters) in diameter) at 2.4 GHz the beamwidth is
0.028◦ . It can be seen that parabolic antennas can produce very narrow
beams, and aiming them can be a problem. Some parabolic dishes are
equipped with a boresight so they can be aimed accurately at the other an-
tenna.

It can be seen there is an inverse relation between gain and beam width. By
combining the beamwidth equation with the gain equation, the relation is:
 2
πk
G= A . (6.9)
Θ

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