A new metal-rod-supported hat antenna for potentially combining with the Eleven antenna as a dual-band feed for reflectors

A new hat feed entirely made of metal without using dielectric material has been developed. Compared to the previous hat feeds, it has lower manufacture cost, higher reliability, and wider bandwidth of reflection coefficient. The feed has been optimized using Genetic Algorithm. A prototype has been manufactured, and measured results are presented to verify the numerical simulations. In addition, the new design opens up the possibility to combine the new hat antenna with the Eleven antenna for a dual-band feed.