Fast synthesis of shaped reflector antennas for contoured beams

The author describes and exemplifies a technique for aperture synthesis and shaped reflector design which has most of the accuracy and flexibility of the analysis-in-an-optimisation-loop design method, while being many times faster. The algorithm is a version of the Method of Successive Projections. The author emphasises practical applications for satellite antennas; discussion focusses on single offset reflectors and on the application of the algorithm to multiple simultaneous requirements, such as multiple beams or multiple frequencies. An example is shown of the synthesis of a C-band transmit/receive antenna exhibiting true dual-band performance with a coverage specification including isolation as well as in-coverage gain requirements.<>