PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
Satellite operators require often antennas able to provide flexibility in terms of coverage and channelization adapting dynamically the on-board available resources and following the traffic demand.
Typically the main objectives to consider, for a transmit antenna, are:
- in-orbit flexibility in terms of service area definition;
- RF power management guaranteeing the most efficient allocation among the service areas and the users;
- minimization of the number of controls
- maximization of the power amplifier efficiency
- stringent pattern requirements in term of side lobe level and isolation.
The scope of this Artes 5.1 activity is to design a Transmit reconfigurable direct radiating array based on a sparse layout and to validate the design with a representative antenna demonstrator.
Challenges
During the project several challenges have been faced and solved adopting state of the art solutions like:
- design, manufacturing and testing of an innovative Active Feed Module composed by a square horn integrating two SSPAs;
- design, manufacturing and testing of a modular box BFN able to feed an 8 Active Feed Module providing the re-configurable network for multi-beams (i.e., 4 beams per polarization) based on multi-layer PCB technology and high MMICs integration.
Plan
The program has been divided in two phases:
a) Phase 1 dedicated to the selection of the mission scenario, the consolidation of the requirements and the detailed design of the complete active sparse array;
b) Phase 2 dedicated to the design, manufacturing and testing of the active multi-beams Demonstrator
Current Status
The implementation of the technique able to fill the antenna aperture by a constrained alignment sparse array to allow the Heat-Pipe integration has been carried out.
The design of the antenna has been completed to provide 52 dBi of Edge of Coverage, two orthogonal circular polarizations, 4 beams per polarization with characteristic of re-configurability in terms of steering and power allocation.
The feasibility has been confirmed by the manufacturing and testing of representative active demonstrator.
