The R&D project aimed to realize the beamforming flexibility for Ka-band high throughput satellite is now in progress. The important technological challenge is to establish the wideband digital beamforming (DBF) technology. The developed technology is planned to be tested in orbit by the engineering test satellite-9. In this chapter, the beamforming capability of DBF with the configuration of an array-fed reflector is investigated. Antenna patterns are evaluated by considering the different restrictions on excitation coefficients between DBF and a conventional active phased array antenna (APAA). The excitation phase and amplitude of APAA is constrained to the assumed discretized values. The sidelobe levels formed by DBF achieve an excellent performance of more than 5 dB compared to APAA. We confirmed the more flexible beamforming capability of DBF.

Chapter Contents:

• 26.1 Introduction
• 26.2 Antenna pattern evaluation
• 26.3 Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• References

Inspec keywords: antenna phased arrays; active antenna arrays; antenna arrays; antenna testing; reflector antenna feeds; telecommunication network planning; array signal processing; satellite antennas; broadband antennas

Other keywords: wideband digital beamforming technology; array-fed reflector; flexible beamforming capability; APAA; active phased array antenna; antenna pattern evaluation; engineering test satellite-9; Ka-band high throughput satellite; DBF technology; reconfigurable antennas

Subjects: Signal processing and detection; Satellite communication systems; Antenna accessories; Antenna arrays; Communication network design, planning and routing