RF characteristics of spaceborne antenna mesh reflecting surfaces: Application of periodic method of moments

This paper describes a numerical-analysis methodology for RF characterization of various mesh reflecting surfaces used as the reflector surface of spaceborne antennas. Two mesh reflecting surfaces, which demonstrate different polarization characteristics, are studied. Because the mesh reflecting surface has a periodic weaving structure, periodic MoM with RWG basis and testing functions is applied, which allows only one periodic cell of mesh surface to be simulated. The analysis of transmission and reflection losses indicated that Single Satin mesh was much better than Single Atlas mesh, in terms of independence of transmission or reflection loss on polarization. This is because Single Satin mesh model has denser strips than the Single Atlas mesh model. Therefore, for any polarization direction, there is always at least one strip with its axis along or nearly along the incident electric field. The methodology and results presented in this paper are useful for accurate performance prediction of mesh reflector antennas. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.