Proceedings of the 46th European Microwave Conference
Improved Splash-Plate Feed Parabolic Reflector
Antenna for Ka-Band VSAT Applications
Yavuz ASCI
Electrical-Electronics Engineering
Ege University, øzmir, Turkey
yavuz.asci@ege.edu.tr
Korkut YEGIN
Electrical-Electronics Engineering
Ege University, øzmir, Turkey
yegink@gmail.com
Abstract — In this study, we propose a conical dielectric
loaded circular waveguide opening to splash plate subreflector
for parabolic antenna feed. Corrugations on the dielectric lens
and splash-plate structure are optimized for antenna
performance. The feed structure is designed as axi-symmetric to
support zero-order azimuth currents for low cross-polarization.
Resulting structure offers good gain, low sidelobe, good cross-
polarization, and low VSWR for Ka-band VSAT applications
where receive and transmit frequency bands are 20.2-21.2 GHz
and 30-31 GHz, respectively.
Index Terms— Parabolic reflector antenna, reflector antenna;
splash plate feed; hat-feed; low sidelobe; corrugated surfaces
I. INTRODUCTION
Reflector antennas are indispensible for many applications
ranging from satellite communications, remote sensing to
tracking radars. Although they are relatively bulky compared to
microstrip counterparts [1-2], they offer high gain, low cross-
polarization, low voltage standing wave ratio, and wideband,
operation. They are relatively low cost and can be light weight
using carbon-fiber technology. They are especially best suited
for earth terminal satellite applications. Their reflecting
surfaces can be of many types where most popular ones are
cylindrical, hyperbolic, parabolic, and spherical surfaces.
Among them, the parabolic reflector antenna is often the
preferred choice due to feed illumination and overall
compactness. One of the major drawbacks of reflector antennas
is their size which makes precision control and tracking very
difficult in moving platforms such as sea-vessels, land vehicles
on rough terrain. Splash-plate feed mechanism, also known as
hat-feed, has been proposed in the last decade, simply because,
the whole antenna can be rotated easily in azimuth without the
need of expensive waveguide rotary joints [3-7]. It also
preserves symmetry for zero-order mode field excitation on the
978-2-87487-043-9 © 2016 EuMA 1283
Eren CURUK
Dept. of Electrical-Electronics Engineering
Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey
Emtech IT Engineering Ltd. Co.
Mersin Technopark, Yeniúehir Mersin
erencuruk@gmail.com
Caner OZDEMIR
Dept. of Electrical-Electronics Engineering
Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey
Emtech IT Engineering Ltd. Co.
Mersin Technopark, Yeniúehir Mersin
cozdemir@mersin.edu.tr
aperture plane. Higher order modes due to edge diffraction and
edge-guided waves contribute to cross polarization levels
which are undesired especially for broadcasting,
communications and defense applications.
Although hat feed reflector antennas suit well for these
applications, the primary constraint in these antennas is their
feed design. Since these feeds are rear radiating, dielectric
loading and lens on waveguide opening as well as splash plate
configuration significantly impact antenna performance and
optimization of design parameters get easily cumbersome. But
the advantages of these feeds are immense because they
prevent blockage and bulky block-up converter and low-noise
block can be placed at the rear part of the reflector [8]. Because
of this geometry, hat feed reflector antennas take place in many
applications, such as broadcasting, radio-relay networks, gauge
radar and satellite-communications on the move (SATCOM)
terminals.
In this study, we present a new hat feed design for VSAT
(very small aperture terminal) in Ka-band communication
systems. The feed is a circular waveguide which operates at the
dominant mode TE11. This mode couples two distinct modes in
the dielectric. In the following section, we first show the design
steps, then the optimization procedure for the feed structure of
the hat feed reflector antenna. In Section III, final design is
discussed. In the last Section, conclusions and performance of
the final structure are presented.
II. DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURE
A. Key Parameters
VSAT antennas for small maritime vehicles [9-12] place
stringent requirements on the electro-mechanical control of the
system. Unlike ground based counterparts, these antennas
experience motion both in azimuth and vertical directions. To
4–6 Oct 2016, London, UK
establish seamless communication, these antennas should choke-ring type sub-reflector, spherical lens, conical transition
possess strict performance requirements. As the gain of the to feed waveguide for impedance match.
antenna is increased to meet gain-over-temperature (G/T)
criterion, half power beamwidth (HPBW) gets smaller, which, The geometrical parameters of the new design have been
in turn, it makes the satellite tracking even more intricate. optimized to meet target design constraints. CST Microwave
Usually HPBW should be in the range of 0.5° to 1° with the Studio® software [13] has been used in electromagnetic
prescribed gain values. If this value is smaller for larger gain, modeling and simulations. Since the feed waveguide is
then, it becomes rather difficult to continuously track the connected to orto-mode transducer, its inner radius is kept
satellite in rapidly moving maritime platform. Often, the constant for common OMT antenna ports to avoid any
antenna needs to be stabilized with reference to true north with transitional part. Circular polarization is common at these
the help of GPS receiver on boards and horizon tracking. Some frequency bands and OMT with septum inset is assumed to
service providers also provide a beacon channel for easier achieve circular polarization operation. During the
satellite tracking. Another critical constraint of the antenna is optimization, the receiver and transmitter frequency bands have
its cross-polarization level being specified not only at the been chosen as the design frequencies 20.2-21.2 GHz and 30-
maximum gain direction but also at points off of the main 31 GHz, respectively. The optimized geometrical dimensions
beam axis as not to interfere with the neighboring satellites. In are given in Fig. 2(b).
addition, during antenna transmission, the side lobe level must
be small as the main beam may shift off of its axis resulting in
interference to other satellites. Hence, key design parameters
for the splash-plate feed antenna are its frequency bandwidth,
side-lobe level, cross-polarization level, and HPBW for reliable
communication.
In this paper, the Ka-band operation is between 20.2 GHz
to 21.2 GHz (Rx mode) and 30 GHz to 31 GHz (Tx mode).
Moreover, the required values for the HPBW on the main beam
and the maximum side-lobe-level have been selected as 1.5°
and 30 dB, respectively, for the reasons mentioned above. The
reflector diameter has been set to 61.4 cm with a focal length of
21.6 cm. The ratio of focal length (F) to diameter (D) has been
set to 0.35. The geometry of the reflector is shown in Fig. 1. (a)

(b)

Figure 2. (a) A simple hat-feed antenna model, (b) new design geometry for
the feeding structure

Figure 1. Geometry of the reflector for the splash-plate antenna III.FINAL DESIGN AND THE PERFORMANCE

A. Final Design
B. Feeding Structure Design and Optimization
After the optimization, the geometry that was composed of
Splash-feed configuration which consists of circular
reflector antenna and the feeding structure is shown in Fig. 3.
waveguide with an iris matching network in the end is very
In the final design, the reflector material has been selected to
typical and illustrated in Fig. 2 (a). Proposed novel feed
be aluminum for CNC machining. The dielectric lens was
structure is shown in Fig. 2 (b), where the new design has
Teflon PFE with relative electric permittivity of 2.1 and the
loss tangent of 0.0002.

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 Since these antennas have narrow HPBW’s, the radiation
pattern roll-off outside HPBW is usually set by the standards.
Simulated SLL levels were less than 40 dB. For the optimized
antenna, gain radiation pattern graphs for both 20.7 and 30.5
GHz are shown in Fig. 5 (a) and Fig. 5 (b), respectively.

Figure 3. Geometry of the optimized hat feed reflector antenna

B. Results of the Design

After the optimization, performance parameters of the
antenna parameters were calculated and presented as below.
Frequency bandwidth: The VSWR for the frequency range
from 20 GHz to 21.2 GHz (Rx band) and 30 GHz-31GHz (Tx
band) is given in Fig. 4. It is clear from the figure that VSWR
values are below 1.5:1 for the transmitting and receiving
frequency bands. Hence, the newly designed hat feed reflector
antenna can work appropriately at the selected bands.
(a)
Gain: The optimized antenna possesses desired gain values and
the gain at the center frequency of receive band (20.7 GHz),
was 40.82 dBi, and at the center frequency of transmit band
(30.5 GHz) it was 43.47 dBi.

(a)

(b)

(b) Figure 5. Designed antenna’s radiation pattern for gain at (a) 20.7 GHz and
(b) 30.5 GHz (Polar coordinates)
Figure 4. VSWR of the optimized antenna (a) Rx band (b) Tx band.

Aperture efficiency: Aperture efficiency plays critical role in

VSAT communications. It can be defined as the ratio of the
effective radiating (or collecting) area of an antenna to the
physical aperture area of the antenna. The usual values for the
most antenna structures available in the market are between 50
% and 60 % for a nominal 61-cm prime focus reflector.
Antenna aperture efficiencies are calculated as 68 % @ 20.7
GHz (mid-frequency of Rx) and 58 % @ 30.5 GHz (mid-
frequency of Tx), respectively.
Side-Lobe Level (SLL): SLL is another critical antenna
parameter which plays a crucial role in VSAT communication.
HPBW: For the designed antenna, radiation patterns of gain are
illustrated in Cartesian coordinates in Figs. 6 (a) and 6 (b) for
the center frequencies of Tx and Rx bands, respectively.
HPBW’s are calculated as 0.9° and 1.3° at the center
frequencies of Tx and Rx bands, respectively.
Xpol: Cross-polarization of the simulated antenna is not
adequate to characterize the antenna as ortho-mode-transducer
(OMT) polarization discrimination plays a vital role. The
antenna system must be simulated with OMT. Since circular
polarization is preferred choice at Ka-band VSAT systems, the

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type and the isolation between the ports of OMT must be
determined first. In present study, we have not included OMT
into the design yet, but, unlike Ku-band systems, large
frequency separation between the Tx and Rx ports enable
highly discriminative OMT’s.
(a)
(b)
Figure 6. Designed antenna’s radiation pattern for gain at (a) 20.7 GHz and
(b) 30.5 GHz (Cartesian coordinates).
IV. CONCLUSION
In this study, we have proposed a new design for the
feeding structure of the splash-feed reflector antenna which has
been widely used in VSAT communications for marine
platforms. The new design focuses on the feed mechanism and
subreflector geometry. To obtain wide bandwidth of operation,
the waveguide feed was designed such that the dielectric lens
had a conical extension towards the feeding circular waveguide
for better impedance match. Then, we designed choke-ring like
subreflector structure with added a stair-like structure in the
inner part to suppress the side-lobes and to increase aperture
efficiency by providing an improved illumination taper. The
design is optimized with the help of CST simulation software.
The key antenna parameters such as frequency bandwidth,
VSWR, HPBW, and the maximum SLL were designated as our
main design goals. The final design with the optimized
structure was simulated using CST and the results were
compared to target values. Simulation results show that
proposed antenna can be used for VSAT communications.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is partly supported by the Scientific and Research
Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under grant no: 5150052.
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