Active microstrip array for satellite communication applications

In this paper two microstrip arrays designed manufactured and tested for the needs of DBS signal reception in the X-band are presented. The TPA-256 antenna was a passive array and the TPA-256A antenna was an active one. TPA-256 and TPA-256A differed in their beamforming networks (BFN)-BFN of the TPA-256A array contained two microwave low noise amplifiers (LNA) to increase antenna sensitivity. The contribution includes theoretical and experimental results. Consideration is also given to reduction of a feeding network spurious radiation in microstrip arrays.