A multibeam antenna for satellite communication
- Paper ID
IAF-82-61
- author
- company
Satellite Communication Division, Radio Research Laboratory, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
- country
Japan
- year
1982
- abstract
Utilization of a multibeam antenna (MBA) offers advantages for all kinds of satellite communication services. Radio Research Laboratories, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Japan, has been studying.on future mobile and inter-satellite communication systems, and is now developing the MBA to be applied to them. This paper presents a general scope of the development of a MBA for a multiple access date relay satillite system. The MBA is of array type with 19 elements, operating at 2.1 GHz (transmit) and 2.3 GHz (receive). The receiving system employs a MBA of 19 beams, while the transmitting system uses a single-beam phased array. A multibeam array is applicable not only to inter-satellite data relay system, but also to future maritime- or aero-nautical-satellite communication systems.(1) The first phase of this program is to develop major components, such as antenna elements, a beam forming network (BFN) etc., and at present this phase has been almost completed. Considering electrical performances and installation to the satellite, a printed slot array antenna is selected as radiating element. Radiation characteristics of the element antenna and seven elements array were measured and satisfactory results were obtained. A compact IF BFN for 19 elements and 19 beams was developed which can reduce the number of the nodes of a resistive matrix greatly by use of symmetry of elements and beam arrangements. Owing to the reduction of the nodes, this BFN is capable of realizing both its small size and excellent beam forming characteristics. Another components are also tested and provide satisfactory data. A bread board model of the multibeam antenna system (MBAS) will be manufactured and its evaluation test will be performed in the next phase.