Efficient reflector illumination by an EBG enhanced aperture

This paper deals with the use of EBG super-layers to improve the shape of the illumination function of a center- fed reflector. Following an investigation of the leaky wave pole singularities of the EBG Green´s function, the shape of the radiation patterns of small apertures in ground planes are optimized by properly tuning the super layers geometrical parameters. A prototype of such feed has been designed, manufactured and tested. The results indicate that the inclusion of the EBG provides an aperture efficiency of the feed+reflector system with values higher than 80%, over a 10% bandwidth.