Optical design of the China Dish verification antenna for the Square Kilometre array

The Dish Verification Antenna China (DVA-C) is a prototype being built to farthest meet the requirements from the Square Kilometre Array scientific goals. In this paper, the details of the optical design of the DVA-C are presented, including the dish optics, and the estimated performance. Although the DVA-C is designed for optimal performance on bore sight, it is potentially employed for phased array feeds. Hence the multi-beam performance of the DVA-C is also analyzed.