A simple tool for the design and analysis of multiple-reflector antennas in a multi-disciplinary environment

The process of designing and analyzing a multiple-reflector system has traditionally been time-intensive, requiring large amounts of both computational and human time. At many frequencies, a discrete approximation of the radiation integral may be used to model the system. The code which implements this physical optics (PO) algorithm was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This paper presents a methodology and examples of use of an automated tool that performs the analysis of a complete multiple-reflector system in an integrated multi-disciplinary environment (including CAD modeling, and structural and thermal analysis) at the click of a button. This tool, named MOD Tool (Millimeter-wave Optics Design Tool), has been designed and implemented as a distributed tool with a client that runs almost identically on Unix, Mac, and Windows platforms, and a server that runs primarily on a Unix workstation and can interact with parallel supercomputers with simple instruction from the user interacting with the client.