Reflector Antennas

Reflector antenna.
•  It is an antenna consisting of one or more reflecting surfaces and a
feed system for transmitting and/or receiving electromagnetic
waves.
• Reflectors are mainly used to modify the radiation pattern of radiating
element.
Types

• Plane Reflector
• Corner Reflector
• Parabolic Reflector
Reflectors of various shapes
• A corner reflector antenna is a type of directional antenna used at 
VHF and UHF frequencies.
•  It was invented by John D. Kraus in 1938.
•  It consists of a dipole driven element mounted in front of two flat
rectangular reflecting screens joined at an angle, usually 90°.
• Corner reflector antennas have moderate gain of 10–15 dB,
•  high front-to-back ratio of 20–30 dB, and
• wide bandwidth.
Parabolic
Reflector-Feed systems
Cassegrain Feed
Gregarian Feed
Offset feed
Advantages of Cassegrain Feed
• Reduction in spill over and minor lobe radiation.
• Ability to place the feed in a convenient location.
• Capability for scanning or broadening of the beam by moving one of
the reflecting surfaces.
• Ability to get an equivalent focal length much greater than the
physical length.
• Disadvantages
• Some of the radiation from the paraboloid reflector is obstructed
Corner Reflectors and
their images with
different included angles
90◦ Corner Reflector
• The total field of the system can be derived by summing the
contributions from the feed and its images
where
Above equation represents not only the ratio of the total field to
that of an isolated element at the origin but also the array factor of
the entire reflector system.
In the azimuthal plane (θ = π/2),
(a) Square corner reflector with images

(b) Four lobed pattern of driven element and images

Where W is the power delivered to driven element(Power to each image
element is also W)
 Coupling factor

The pattern shape is a function of angle Ǿ and antenna

Pattern Factor
to corner spacing S
Variation of radiation pattern with
varying distance between reflector
and the feed
• Advantages: 
• It offers ease of construction.
• It possesses high directivity by reflecting the electromagnetic wave in the
direction of its source.

• Disadvantages:
• The presence of side lobes here create EMI.
• Its presence makes the antenna arrangement quite bulky.
• The use of this reflector increases the cost of the corner reflector antenna.
Applications

• In radar systems, to hide the presence of defence vehicles from the

enemy radar. This implies it is used for hiding due to its special feature
of reflecting the signal exactly in the same direction from which it is
coming when α is precisely 90° and these vehicles are constructed
with less sharp corners.
• In television signal reception thus finds applications in home
antennas.
• In optical communication applications.
General properties of parabola
• If we have a point source and wish to produce a plane wave front over
a large aperture by means of a sheet reflector , it is required that the
distance from the source to the plane wave front via path 1 and 2 be
equal .
Parabolic Reflector
• Here PF=PQ
Comparison of Cylindrical parabolic
reflector with Square corner reflector
Parabolic Reflector
Expression for field distribution
• Consider a cylindrical parabolic reflector With a line source(isotropic)
For a unit distance in z direction,
Where y=