Engineering Commons^™

Passive And Electronically Steered Array Planar Feeds For Satellite Communications, Kyle C. Browning

Theses and Dissertations

As the need for more bandwidth increases, satellite communication (SatCom) terminals are forced to climb higher in frequency. Higher frequency means greater propagation losses, and so antenna gain and sensitivity have to increase. The higher the gain, the more difficult it is to point the antenna. To make matters even more challenging, consumers are requesting satellite links in harsher environments and on moving vehicle and planes. In order to meet today's challenges and improve on dish feeds, research is ongoing to replace fixed-beam feedhorns with smaller, cheaper, and lighter PCB based antennas and to develop low-cost electronically steered array feeds …