Novel Worst-case Surface Accuracy Evaluation Method and Its Application in Reflector Antenna Structure Design

In order to ensure the electrical performance of the reflector antenna, the surface accuracy constraint need to be satisfied during the structure design. Different calculating methods can get different accuracy values, then influence the difficulty of antenna structure design. Therefore, the evaluation method for antenna surface accuracy is of vital importance. In this paper, the traditional evaluation procedure is first reviewed. This method has been successfully used in structure design of many large antennas, but based on our analysis, this method is sub-optimal. For this reason, a new accuracy evaluation method is introduced, which can get the optimal worst-case surface accuracy. Both quantitative analysis and numerical example of a 110 m radio telescope show that this method can improve the worst-case accuracy effectively. The structural optimization of an 8 m antenna, as a test problem, is also discussed and the results are given.