Prime Focus Feeds for the Compact Range

Author: John R. Jones

Prime focus fed paraboloidal reflector compact ranges are used to provide plane wave illumination indoors at small range lengths for antenna and radar cross-section measurements. The “quiet zone”, which is the region of space within which a uniform plane wave is created, has previously been limited to a small fraction of the reflector size. A typical quiet zone might be six feet by four feet for a ten foot radius reflector.

Two new feed antennas have been designed which can provide an increase in quiet zone size as defined by the amplitude taper in the quiet zone field. Design details for the feeds are presented and the performance of the feeds in a compact range is discussed.