FRINGE-CURRENT EFFECTS ON REFLECTOR ANTENNA CROSS-POLARIZATION

The paper deals with an extension of PO by fringe currents at the refl ector rim and at slots in the reflector surface. Such slots occur, for instance, in unfurlabIe reflectors composed of solid panels or in hin ged solid reflectors with no electrical contacts between the panels. T he fringe-current effects on the antenna far field are evaluated numer ically for representative cases. It is found that they are small and p rimarily influence the crosspolarized radiation. They may in the case of circularly polarized offset reflector antenna systems be the domina nt crosspolar contribution due to the reflector alone.