Dielectrically Loaded Quad-ridge Flared Horns for Ultra Wideband Reflector Feed Applications in Radio Astronomy

Reflector-based radio telescopes are used as tools for observations in both radio astronomy and space geodesy. To observe the weak sources in space, highly sensitive receivers, fronted by optimized reflector feeds, are therefore needed. Wideband and ultra-wideband (UWB) systems enable large continuous frequency bandwidth and reduce the number of receivers that are needed to cover the radio spectrum. Therefore, they are attractive for existing and next generation of reflector arrays such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), Allen Telescope Array (ATA), Deep Synoptic Array (DSA), and the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). To achieve sensitive wideband and UWB performance with reflector feeds, a near-constant beamwidth and good impedance match are required over large frequency bands. The quad-ridge flared horn (QRFH) is a robust and compact UWB feed technology for this purpose, and is easily designed with single-ended excitation for 50-Ohm ports. The QRFH is dual-linear polarized and can typically achieve good performance up to 6:1 bandwidth with high band-average aperture efficiency and good impedance match. A drawback in existing state-of-the-art QRFH designs, is that they suffer from gradually narrowing beamwidth and increasing cross-polarization in the upper part of the frequency band. This is especially challenging for QRFHs that are designed to illuminate deep reflector geometries. The narrowing beamwidth leads to reduced aperture efficiency, and therefore also reduced sensitivity. To meet the demand for high sensitivity observations over large bandwidths, these challenges need to be addressed.This thesis introduces and investigates low-loss, dielectric loading of the QRFH design to achieve ultra-wideband performance that reaches beyond decade bandwidth exemplified with 20:1 bandwidth in one single QRFH. The dielectric load is homogeneous, with a small and non-intrusive footprint and improves the beamwidth performance over the frequency band, while keeping the complexity low and the QRFH footprint compact. Keeping the QRFH robustness and compact footprint is favorable for practical receiver installation in real-world applications for radio observations. Three quad-ridge designs with dielectric loading are investigated, both for room temperature and cryogenic applications, and are shown to be highly suitable for wideband operation in existing and future reflector arrays

Dielectrically Loaded Quad-Ridge Flared Horn for Beamwidth Control Over Decade Bandwidth-Optimization, Manufacture, and Measurement

We present the design, manufacture, and measured performance of a dielectrically loaded quad-ridge flared horn (QRFH) feed for decade bandwidth radio astronomy application. The introduction of the dielectric load improves the QRFH beamwidth control in H-plane at the mid and upper frequency range. Consequently on the reflector, illumination efficiency, phase efficiency, and the intrinsic cross-polarization ratio (IXR) have been improved. The dielectric load is made from homogeneous low-loss polytetrafluoroethylene and has a low profile with a cylinder shape for simple installation at the center of the QRFH. The dielectrically loaded QRFH presented here covers 1.5-15.5 GHz with a calculated average aperture efficiency above 50% on a f/D = 0.3 prime-focus reflector. We present a calculation of system noise temperature and sensitivity for the QRFH on a 100 m prime-focus reflector. Measured beam patterns of the QRFH are in good agreement with the simulations over the full frequency band. The input reflection coefficient was predicted to be below -10 dB across the bandwidth. We present a tolerance analysis that explains why the measured one deviates

Ultra-wideband feed design and characterization for next generation radio telescopes

Radio telescopes are used as tools for observations in both radio astronomy and geodesy. To observe the weak sources in space, highly sensitive receivers headed by optimized reflector feeds are needed. Wideband and ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver systems enable large continuous frequency bandwidth and reduce the number of receivers that are needed. Therefore, they are attractive for the next generation of large reflector arrays such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). To achieve highly sensitive wideband and UWB performance with reflector feeds, a near-constant beamwidth and good impedance match are required over large frequency bands. The quad-ridge flared horn (QRFH) is a robust and popular UWB feed technology for this purpose. Typically, the QRFH achieve good performance up to 6:1 bandwidth and are designed for high aperture efficiency. However, due to the very small noise contributions of today\u27s low-noise amplifiers (LNA), it is becoming more relevant to design specifically for high sensitivity. A drawback in existing state-of-the-art QRFH designs, is that they suffer from narrowing beamwidth as the frequency increases over the bandwidth. To meet the demand for high sensitivity observations over large bandwidths, these challenges need to be addressed.In this thesis, the spline-defined QRFH design for the room temperature SKA Band 1 feed package over 350-1050 MHz is presented. The QRFH spline-profile is optimized for high sensitivity over the 3:1 bandwidth for the SKA reflector dish.The thesis also introduces a low-profiled dielectric load at the center of a QRFH design for 10:1 bandwidth for the BRAND project. The dielectric load improves the beamwidth performance over the 1.5-15.5GHz frequency band, while keeping the complexity of the QRFH concept low. Both of the approaches that are introduced here are applicable for any future QRFH design, and are therefore relevant for the community in the hunt for high sensitivity observations

Water vapour radiometry in geodetic very long baseline interferometry telescopes: assessed through simulations

The accuracy of geodetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is affected by water vapour in the atmosphere in terms of variations in the signal propagation delay at the different stations. This “wet” delay may be estimated directly from the VLBI data, as well as from independent instruments, such as collocated microwave radiometers. Rather than having stand-alone microwave radiometers we have, through simulations, evaluated the possibility to use radiometric data from the VLBI receiver in the VGOS telescopes at the Onsala Space Observatory. The advantage is that the emission from water vapour, as sensed by the radiometer, originates from the same atmospheric volume that delays the VLBI signal from the extra-galactic object. We use simulations of the sky brightness temperature and the wet delay together with an assumption of a root-mean-square (rms) noise of the receiver of 1\ua0K, and observations evenly spread between elevation angles of 10∘–90∘. This results in an rms error of the estimated equivalent zenith wet delay of the order of 3\ua0mm for a one frequency algorithm, used under cloud free conditions, and 4\ua0mm for a two frequency algorithm, used during conditions with liquid water clouds. The results exclude rainy conditions when the method does not work. These errors are reduced by a factor of 3 if the receiver error is 0.1\ua0K meaning that the receivers’ measurements of the sky brightness temperature is the main error source. We study the impact of ground-noise pickup by using a model of an existing wideband feed. Taking the algorithm uncertainty and the ground noise pickup into account we conclude that the method presented will be useful as an independent estimate of the wet delay to assess the quality of the wet delays and linear horizontal gradients estimated from the VLBI data themselves

Integrated calibration noise coupler for room temperature SKA band 1 feed system

This paper presents design of a novel coupler for the injection of calibration signal into the RF path of the SKA Band 1 quad-ridged flared horn, covering frequencies from 350–1050 MHz. The coupler is integrated in the feed horn and provides a coupling factor of −35 dB. The calibration signal is injected before the first amplification stage, without any degradation in the noise performance of the room temperature system

Design trade-offs in feed systems for ultra-wideband VLBI observations

Due to the advanced capability of today’s ultra-wideband feed systems and low-noise amplifiers, interesting upgrades for future VLBI receiver and tele- scope design should be considered. Multiple input pa- rameters need to be taken into account for optimal sensitivity and applications of the future astronomical and geodetic observational systems. In this paper we present an overview of some trade-offs for wideband systems between SEFD, bandwidth and telescope re- flector optics. We evaluate receiver bandwidths from 3.5:1 to 10.3:1 bandwidth within the frequency range 1.5-24 GHz in different configurations. Due to poten- tial RFI-pollution of the lower frequencies we present potential feed upgrades for the most common reflector geometries ofVGOS and EVN telescopes that mitigate this problem. The results of this work is relevant for fu- ture VLBI stations and telescope design in general. Keyword

Optimization and Realization of Quadruple-ridge Flared Horn with New Spline-defined Profiles as a High-efficiency Feed over 4.6–24 GHz

In this paper, we present a new optimization and realization of a quadruple-ridge flared horn (QRFH) as a feed for reflector antennas of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. The QRFH has been numerically optimized by spline-defined profiles for both the ridges and the horn sidewall, with a conical cavity in the back-short for maximum aperture efficiency. The final aperture efficiency better than (for horizontal polarization) or around (for vertical polarization) 78% over 4.6–8 GHz, 70% over 8–15 GHz, 65% over 15–20 GHz and 60% over 20–24 GHz in the SKA offset-Gregorian dual-reflector antenna has been achieved. The realization of the horn has been carried out carefully by applying several new mechanical design solutions in order to guarantee the accurate positioning of the ridges, the feeding pins and a good electrical contact. The measured S11 is mostly better than -10 dB and the predicted aperture efficiency based on the measured far field patterns agrees well with the simulated result. System performance, such as the sensitivity and system noise temperature, are also estimated and presented

Design of F-Band Transition From Microstrip to Ridge Gap Waveguide Including Monte Carlo Assembly Tolerance Analysis

(c) 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This paper describes the design and realization of a transition from a microstrip line to a ridge gap waveguide operating between 95 and 115 GHz. The study includes simulations, measurements, and a Monte Carlo analysis of the assembly tolerances. The purpose of this tolerance study is to identify the most critical misalignments that affect the circuit performance and to provide guidelines about the assembly tolerance requirements for the proposed transition designThis work was supported in part by the Swedish Research Council VR, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems VIN-NOVA via a project within the VINN Excellence center Chase, and the European Research Council (ERC) under Grant ERC-2012-ADG-20120216.Algaba-Brazález, A.; Flygare, J.; Yang, J.; Vassilev, V.; Baquero Escudero, M.; Kildal, P. (2016). Design of F-Band Transition From Microstrip to Ridge Gap Waveguide Including Monte Carlo Assembly Tolerance Analysis. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 64(4):1245-1254. doi:10.1109/TMTT.2016.2535334S1245125464

Ultra-wideband feed systems for the EVN and SKA - evaluated for VGOS

The design of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project for radio astronomy is now materializing at a rapid speed; the EU Horizon 2020 RadioNet project BRoad-bAND (BRAND) has the ambition to deliver a decade bandwidth receiver for EVN. The ultra-wideband quad-ridge flared horn (QRFH) feed systems developed for these projects show good performance within the geodetic VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS) frame due to the overlapping frequency bands and reflector geometries. We estimate, through simulation, system equivalent flux density (SEFD) of the two feed systems in the VGOS reflector and compare the it to the existing system installed on one of the 13.2 m diameter reflectors of the Onsala twin telescope (OTT). The two frequency bands analyzed cover 1.5−15.5 GHz and 4.6−24 GHz. Both systems show SEFD better than 1000 Jy over large parts of resp. frequency band - comparable to the 3−18 GHz feed systems. For the SKA QRFH over 4.6−24 GHz, the water vapor absorption line at 22 GHz is within the operational band, therefore we study the application of water-vapor radiometry in line-of-sight of the telescope

Design of an Asymmetrical Quadruple-ridge Flared Horn Feed: a Solution to Eliminate Polarization Discrepancy in the Offset Reflecting Systems

Quadruple-ridge Flared Horns (QRFHs) have been showing qualified performance as the feed antennas for the reflecting systems in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). However, due to the offset optics of the SKA reflecting system, identicalilluminations from dual polarizations of the feed would but result in different system performance. This difference would become more severe towards high frequencies and may cause the worse polarization unqualified for the desired specification. In this paper, an asymmetrical QRFH feed working over BandB (4.6–24 GHz) is proposed and optimized to tackle this problem.The asymmetrical Band-B feed is composed of two different and orthogonal pairs of both ridges and sidewall quad-pieces, so as to provide orthogonal polarizations but different illuminations. Simulated results show that, by this asymmetrical design different beamwidths and different combinations of sub-efficiencies can beprovided for two polarizations, so as to eliminate the polarization discrepancy over most of the bandwidth. Benefitting from this elimination, both polarizations of the Band-B feed have now achieved the SKA specification in terms of aperture efficiency