A Compact Dual-Polarized 4-Port Eleven Feed with High Sensitivity for Reflectors over 0.35-1.05 GHz

Journal article, 2015

We present significant improvements to the circular Eleven feed technology for a dual-reflector system operating over 0.35-1.05 GHz as a backup for the square kilometer array (SKA) project Band 1. In this work, the number of the feed ports is reduced to 4 from the previous 8 for dual polarization using a novel geometry at the center. The design is carried out by optimizing with a social civilization algorithm. The resulting improvements include a reflection coefficient below -12dB, an aperture efficiency above 70% at the upper end of the band, a maximum cross-polar level under -15dB, and an ohmic loss about 0.05 dB. A prototype based on this design has been manufactured and the design simulations have been verified against measurements. A simulated sensitivity of the dual-reflector receiver system for the SKA project based on the measured data is also presented in this communication.