Enhancing Aperture Efficiency of Single Parabolic Cylindrical Compact Range Based on a Linear Array Excitation Method

This paper presents a method for optimizing the excitation of a linear array feed in a single parabolic cylindrical compact range (SPCCR), which can improve aperture efficiency while maintaining high quality quiet zone performance. The SPCCR is first analyzed using the plane wave angular spectrum (PWAS), where the reflector acts as an angular domain filter to eliminate higher spatial frequency plane waves from the feed source. Subsequently, a truncated approximation function of the PWAS (TAPWAS) is proposed to represent the PWAS synthesis of the feed source. The excitation obtained through angular spectrum domain optimization can achieve an aperture efficiency as high as 83% for the serrated-edge reflector whereby the solid body of the reflector accounted for 73.5% of its width. Finally, both numerical full-wave simulations and experimental validations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.