Development of antenna system for S-band mobile satellite communications and broadcasting

Advanced Space Communications Research Laboratory is studying an antenna system for future S-band mobile satellite communication and broadcasting. This system uses a GEO satellite and is composed of a large deployable satellite antenna with a 10 m diameter mesh reflector and a mobile antenna for vehicles and hand-held terminals. In this paper, we present our deployable satellite antenna program and discuss the radiation characteristics of the antenna. These characteristics include a shaped multibeam synthesis for communications, and a shaped beam synthesis for broadcasting. We also describe a switching plane array antenna for vehicles.