Novel parabolic dish antenna for RADAR applications

In this paper, a novel parabolic dish antenna design, aiming radar applications at 24GHz, is presented. Firstly, a dedicated analysis on the theorectical formulation of reflector dish antennae is conducted, in order to evaluate the main design parameters against antenna performance. This study is used as design guideline for the antenna being proposed in this paper. Subsquently, the design of the novel parabolic dish antenna is described and validated by the means of electromagnetic simulations performed in CST Microwave Studio (CST MWS). The proposed antenna is composed of 4 parts: a paraboloid shape imprinted in PETG material, a metalic coating layer to enable the shaped paraboloid with EM reflecting properties, a PTFE spacer layer to ensure the focal distance and, finaly, a microstrip feeding source designed on a double side substrate. According to simulations, the final antenna design has a bandwith of 500 MHz, centered at 24.125 GHz and, 21.1 dBi of gain, meeting initial project speficiations. The half power beamwidth (HPBW) is of 13° and 14°, in the azimuth and elevation planes, respectively, while the side-lobe levels are of −16° and −18°, for the same antenna planes.