Design and test of an L-band phased array for maritime satcom

In this paper a phased array antenna for maritime satellite communications is described. The antenna consists of 26 patch elements that are mounted on a soccer-like spherical aperture. The antenna allows full duplex communication via L-band satellite systems like Inmarsat BGAN or Thuraya. This design is an innovative and powerful alternative to current mechanically steered systems. Intermediate results of this antenna design were already presented in previous papers [1, 2]. This paper shows the final results in detail - after the final demonstration on a ship has been performed successfully.