Dual Circularly Polarized Spherical Phased-Array Antenna for Spacecraft Application

Design aspects of an active spherical phased-array antenna (SPAA) operating in dual circularly polarized (CP) mode are discussed here. Dual CP configuration with good cross-polarized isolation enables frequency reuse using polarization diversity. This design also implements sharing of the resources like amplifiers and phase shifters in an optimal way to reduce mass, power requirement, and cost of the antenna. The antenna is hemispherical in shape and maintains required effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) over a hemispherical coverage area. Detailed analysis including the effect of failure of a few of the elements of the array and the measured results of the antenna at X-band are discussed here. This antenna has been used for transmission of payload data from a low Earth orbit satellite of ISRO.

[1]  W. V. Aulock.  Properties of Phased Arrays , 1960 .

[2]  D. Sengupta,et al.  Radiation characteristics of a spherical array of circularly polarized elements , 1966 .

[3]  O. Franek,et al.  Numerical modeling of a spherical array of monopoles using FDTD method , 2006 .

[4]  Hema Singh,et al.  Radiation pattern of spherical phased antenna array with Dolph-Chebyshev's aperture distribution , 2009, 2009 Applied Electromagnetics Conference (AEMC).

[5]  V.K. Lakshmeesha,et al.  Novel Dual Circularly Polarized Radiating Element for Spherical Phased-Array Application , 2009, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.

[6]  M. Hoffman.  Conventions for the analysis of spherical arrays , 1963 .

[7]  Hugh Griffiths,et al.  Phase mode processing for spherical antenna arrays , 2003 .

[9]  Robert J. Mailloux,et al.  Phased Array Antenna Handbook , 1993 .

[10]  G. Knittel,et al.  Choosing the number of faces of a phased-array antenna for hemisphere scan coverage , 1965 .

[11]  Joseph E. Ferris,et al.  Experimental study of a spherical array of circularly polarized elements , 1968 .

[12]  P.K. Bondyopadhyay.  Geodesic sphere phased arrays for LEO satellite communications , 2000, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium. Transmitting Waves of Progress to the Next Millennium. 2000 Digest. Held in conjunction with: USNC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting (C.

[13]  R.W. Kreutel,et al.  Antenna technology for frequency reuse satellite communications , 1977, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[14]  Manuel Sierra-Castaner,et al.  Dual Circular Polarized Steering Antenna for Satellite Communications in X Band , 2012 .

[15]  Shiang Liu,et al.  Spherical Arrays - Design Considerations , 2005, 2005 18th International Conference on Applied Electromagnetics and Communications.

[16]  L. Josefsson,et al.  Conformal array antenna theory and design , 2006 .

[17]  R. Hansen.  Phased Array Antennas , 2009 .

[18]  H. Rogier,et al.  Phase-Mode Processing for Spherical Antenna Arrays With a Finite Number of Antenna Elements and Including Mutual Coupling , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[19]  R. Hockensmith,et al.  Application of spherical arrays - A simple approach , 1977 .

[20]  Pablo Padilla,et al.  DUAL CIRCULAR POLARIZED STEERING ANTENNA FOR SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS IN X BAND , 2012 .

[21]  G. R. Branner,et al.  The far-field of a spherical array of point dipoles , 1994 .