Axial Field of A TEM-fed UWB Reflector Antenna: PO/PTD Construction

Recent interests in utilizing antenna systems for radar applications are being focused on the antenna’s ultra wide band (UWB) operation capabilities. One possible configuration for realizing UWB antenna is to employ a spherical TEM launcher as the feed to illuminate a paraboloidal reflector1. An example of the TEM-fed reflector antenna is depicted in Figure 1, in which the TEM-launcher is assumed to have four blades although in practice other numbers of the blades may be used. Proper characterization of the radiated field along the axial direction is important for assessing the impulse responses of such TEM-fed reflector antennas. The challenging issues in this task include the evaluation of the diffracted fields from the edge of the reflector, and the scattered field caused by the spherical TEM-launcher’s blades.