This thesis presents a new approach to the hardware test environment for a twist reflector monopulse antenna system with a radome extending current measurement practice. New research is presented on the optimisation of the design of a twist reflector monopulse antenna system with a radome, significantly improving the design and the design process. A unique extension to current measurement practice, for single channel antennas, is presented to determine the best practice method on phase stable measurements of a multi-channel antenna on a moving positioner. A novel axis transform for a 3 axis positioner system located within an anechoic chamber is derived. It allows for true performance measurement of a twist reflector antenna with a radome. This progresses the field of antenna measurement as, uniquely, this axis transform allows the aberration caused by the antenna radome to be measured and included. Design improvements have been made on polarisation selective grids, the matched thickness of the radome and a new software method that removes the need for a comparator and increases the robustness of the antenna system. Polarisation selective grids, constructed from a set of parallel conductors, have a wide range of uses in antenna systems. This thesis shows that the depth of a copper grid line can be reduced to 15 m and still provide better than -25 dB cross-polar isolation. This is contrary to current understanding at 30 times the skin depth. A new combined approach to radome thickness optimisation is presented that reduces the time taken to calculate the optimal thickness by over 3 orders of magnitude and the computer memory by over 2 orders of magnitude without compromising accuracy. The use of a digital comparator is described and leads to a novel method to compensate for a failed feed element, verifified in both simulation and anechoic chamber measurements.

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Le milieu plasma correspond au 4ème état de la matière présentant une permittivité diélectrique complexe qui peut être exploitée pour les systèmes de communication. Sa permittivité négative a été étudiée dans de nombreux travaux de recherche démontrant que le plasma peut avoir des caractéristiques similaires à celles d'un métal en termes de conductivité électrique. En considérant une perméabilité positive, le plasma peut ainsi réagir de la même manière qu'un métal en présence d'une onde électromagnétique. Cette thèse a pour objectif de démontrer que le plasma est une alternative au métal pour la réalisation d'antennes reconfigurables. La première partie du travail concerne la caractérisation du milieu plasma en utilisant des sources plasma commerciales à savoir des lampes à Néon. Cette caractérisation est primordiale afin de pouvoir ensuite simuler ce type de source. La seconde partie des recherches a concerné la conception et la réalisation d'antennes plasma reconfigurables en rayonnement et ceci à la fréquence de 2.4 GHz. Le premier concept est un réflecteur circulaire et le second un réflecteur à angle droit tous les deux réalisés à partir de différentes lampes à Néon et illuminés par une antenne source monopole. Le réflecteur circulaire permet de dépointer le faisceau d'antennes sur 360° alors que le réflecteur à angle droit permet de reconfigurer le faisceau rayonnant et de passer d'un faisceau directif à deux faisceaux avec un creux dans l'axe. Ces dispositifs rayonnants innovants basés sur des lampes à Néon ont été validés expérimentalement et les résultats de mesure (S11 et rayonnement) sont en bonne adéquation avec les résultats de simulation. Ces deux types d'antennes réflecteurs possèdent également de bons résultats en termes de gain, ce qui valide l'utilisation et la caractérisation des lampes plasma de commerce utilisées. Dans la troisième partie du travail, ce même type de lampe à néon a été utilisé pour concevoir cette fois un élément rayonnant excité par couplage capacitif. La réalisation d'un prototype à permis de démontrer la faisabilité d'une telle source rayonnante. Enfin, la dernière partie des recherches concerne une étude de la Surface Equivalente Radar des antennes réflecteur conçues précédemment. L'étude a démontré que ces antennes réflecteurs plasma présentent des SER largement inférieures lorsqu'elles sont éteintes ainsi qu'à fréquence haute (8 GHz) comparativement à celles d'antennes métalliques équivalentes ce qui en fait des antennes furtives d'un point de vue radar. / Plasma is the 4th state of matter with complex permittivity that can be exploited to give advantages in communication system. Its negative permittivity has been studied in many research papers and it was proven to have similar characteristics as metal material in terms of electrical conductivity. While keeping permeability in the positive region, plasma will respond to electromagnetic waves in the similar manner as metal. Therefore, this thesis aimed to use plasma as an alternative to metal in the construction of reconfigurable antennas. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to characterize a plasma model based on the commercially available plasma source. Since there are many type of plasma source in terms of their electrical properties and physical shapes, it is important to characterize a particular plasma source so that it can be modeled in simulations to construct other types of plasma antennas. The second part presents the realization of plasma reflector antennas. Two types of plasma reflector antennas have been simulated, fabricated and measured at 2.4 GHz. The first one is are round reflector antenna (RRA) and the second one is corner reflector antenna (CRA). The performances of RRA have been validated and it was proven to provide beam shaping and beam scanning capability. The measured radiation patterns are in a good agreement with simulation ones. The capability of RRA is exceptional since it can steer its main beam from 0° up to 360°. Moreover, the scanning gain remains the same as the main beam is being moved from one direction to another. The CRA that has been introduced in this thesis is a novel design since it integrates two corner-reflector antennas on a single ground plane. The CRA offers three beam shapes which are electrically switchable from one shape to another. The CRA was simulated, fabricated and finally its performances were validated throughout a series of agile measurements. The measured reflected radiation patterns are in good agreements with the simulation ones. The measured gains of the RRA and CRA are 5 dB higher than the gain of classical monopole antenna with an identical size of finite ground plane. The fourth part deals with plasma as radio waves radiator. Two plasma antennas using commercially available U-shaped compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) have been fabricated and measured and it was proven that these antennas can be to radiate radio signal. The last part discusses about radar cross section performance of the plasma reflector antennas. The two plasma reflector antennas (RRA and CRA) were tested and measured for their RCS performance.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / A novel dual-band S and C band antenna for high-performance autotracking applications is described. The antenna provides simultaneous dual band coverage for targets with circular or linear polarization. A vertex mounted C-band multi-mode common aperture feed is added in a Cassegrain configuration augmenting the existing ViaSat patented [1-4] ESCAN® S-band prime focus feed. A dichroic subreflector is also added allowing simultaneous dual band operation for the prime focus and Cassegrain configurations with minimal interaction. Existing S-band antennas are easily upgraded for dual band capability with only the additions of the vertex mounted C-band feed and dichroic subreflector.

ITC/USA 2013 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Ninth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 21-24, 2013 / Bally's Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV / The tracking modulation index (Km) is a key performance parameter for any autotracking antenna and should especially be considered for classically difficult targets such as missiles and/or fast moving aircraft. Antenna subsystems are typically characterized by their gain to temperature ratio (G/T) to optimize receive data bit error rates (BER) for distant targets. One important parameter often overlooked for telemetry autotracking antennas is a graded value for the available tracking modulation index (Km) that is common in radar autotracking applications. Tracking modulation performance is a major contributor for minimizing the antenna pointing error during an autotrack mission. Autotracking radar antenna specifications typically include tracking modulation as a major design parameter, many receive-only autotrack antennas used for telemetry applications do not consider this important parameter for the intended tracking mission which may result in poor autotracking performance. This paper investigates the effects of tracking modulation levels on system pointing errors for various classes of feed topologies.

ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / A new common aperture autotracking C-band feed, specifically designed to accurately track fast moving targets such as the Lance missile, is reviewed. Measured data demonstrates exceptional tracking modulation required for good tracking performance while simultaneously providing excellent data channel performance for high G/T over the entire 4.40-5.25 GHz band. The new patent applied for feed design allows users to maintain existing L/S-band capability with a cost effective field upgrade which adds high performance C-band capability to an existing telemetry tracking system.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2001. / "Submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Engineering and Industrial Design, University of Western Sydney" Includes bibliography.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Utilising future radio interferometer arrays, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), to their full potential will require calibrating for various direction- dependent effects, including the radiation pattern (or primary beam in the parlance of radio astronomers) of each of the antennas in such an array. This requires an accurate characterisation of the radiation patterns at the time of observation, as changing operating conditions may cause substantial variation in these patterns. Furthermore, fundamental imaging limits, as well as practical time constraints, limit the amount of measurement data that can be used to perform such characterisation. Herein three techniques are presented which aim to address this requirement by providing pattern models that use the least amount of measurement data for an accurate characterisation of the radiation pattern. These methods are demonstrated through application to the MeerKAT Offset Gregorian (OG) dual-reflector antenna. The first technique is based on a novel application of the Jaco bi-Bessel series in which the expansion coefficients are solved directly from the secondary pattern. Improving the efficiency of this model in the desired application leads to the development of a different set of basis functions, as well as two constrained solution approaches which reduce the number of pattern measurements required to yield an accurate and unique solution. The second approach extends the application of the recently proposed Characteristic Basis Function Patterns (CBFPs) to compensate for non-linear pattern variations resulting from mechanical deformations in a reflector antenna system. The superior modelling capabilities of these numerical basis functions, which contain most of the pattern features of the given antenna design in a single term, over that of analytic basis functions are demonstrated. The final method focusses on an antenna employing a Phased Array Feed (PAF) in which multiple beam patterns are created through th e use of a beam-former. Calibration of such systems poses a difficult problem as the radiation pattern shape is susceptible to gain variations. Here we propose a solution which is based on using a Linearly Constrained Minimum Varia nce (LCMV) beamformer to conform the realised beam pattern to a physics-based analytic function. Results show that the LCMV beamformer successful ly produces circularly symmetric beams that are accurately characterised with a single-term analytic function over a wide FoV. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die volle benutting van toekomstige radio interferometersamestellings, soos die Square Kilometre Array (SKA), benodig die kalibrering van verskeie rigting-afhanklike effekte, insluitend die stralingspatroon (bekend as die primêre bundel onder radio astronome) van elke antenne in só ’n samestelling. Hierdie benodig ’n akkurate karakterisering van die stralingspatrone op die waarnemingstydstip, aangesien veranderende bedryfskarakteristieke ’n beduidende afwyking in hierdie patrone veroorsaak. Verder, weens fund amentele perke in beeldverwerking, asook praktiese tydbeperkinge, bestaan daar ’n limiet op die hoeveelheid gemeetde data wat benut kan word om die nodige karakterisering mee te doen. Hierin word drie tegnieke ten toon gestel wat gemik is daarop om aan hierdie behoefte te voorsien deur die gebruik van modelle wat ’n minimum hoeveelheid metingdata benodig om ’n akkurate beskrywing van die stralingspatroon te lewer. Die verskeie metodes word aangebied aan die hand van die MeerKAT afset-Gregorian dubbelreflektorantenne. Die eerste tegniek is gebasseer op ’n nuwe toepassing van die Jacobi- Besselreeks waarin die sekondêre stralingspatroon direk gebruik word om die uitsettingskoëffisiënte op te los. Die doelmatigheidsverbetering van hierdie model in die huidige toepassing lei na die ontwikkeling van ’n nuwe versameling van basisfunksies, asook twee voorwaardelike oplossings wat die nodige aantal metings vir ’n akkurate, unieke oplossing verminder. In die tweede tegniek word die toepassing van die onlangs voorgestelde Karakteristieke Basisfunksie Patrone uitgebrei om te vergoed vir die nie-lineêre stralingspatroonafwykings wat teweeggebring word deur meganiese vervormings in die reflektorantenne. Die superieure modelleringsvermoëns van hierdie numeriese basisfunksies, wat meeste van die patroonkenmerke vasvang in ’n enkele term, bo dié van analitiese basisfunksies word gedemonstreer. Die laaste metode fokus op die gebruik van ’n gefaseerde samestellingvoer waarin veelvoudige bundelpatrone geskep word deur die gebruik van ’n bundelvormer. Die kalibrering van sulke instrumente word bemoeilik daardeur dat die patroonvorm gevoelig is vir aanwinsafwykings. Hier stel ons ’n oplossing voor waarin ’n lineêrbegrensde minimumstrooiing bundelvormer gebruik word om die stralingspatroon te pas op ’n fisika-gebasseerde analitiese funksie. Resultate toon dat hierdie bundelvormer sirkelsimmetriese bundels kan skep wat akkuraat beskryf word deur ’n een-term analitiese funksie oor ’n wye gesigsveld.

QC 20100901