Index on Radar Systems
Single curved parabolic antennas
Single curved means that a parabolic curvature exists only in one dimension. Thus this antenna does not have a focal point but a focal line. The reflector has a rather cylindrical shape and is fed by a row of single radiators arranged on this focal line. By feeding of every single radiator with a weighted fraction of the transmitting power (e.g. according to Taylor or Gauss), this has the advantage that this antenna gets smaller sidelobes. Another advantage is that these single radiators do not “squint” towards the reflector. This is why such antenna feeds are also called “squintless feeds”.
With a serial feeding of the single radiators, such an antenna becomes a frequency scanning array.