Gain and Aperture Efficiency for a Reflector Antenna With an Array Feed

Abstract

A figure of merit for array antennas can be defined using the signal processing concept of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain. The resulting array efficiency metric reduces to aperture efficiency for an isolated array and to a combination of aperture and spillover efficiency for an array feed. These results provide a practical way to measure aperture efficiency for active arrays and array feeds.