Towards structural integration of airborne Ku-band SatCom antenna

The paper describes research towards a fully structurally integrated Ku-band SatCom antenna. This antenna covers the complete receive band for aeronautical earth stations and DVB-S broadcast in Ku band (10.7 - 12.75 GHz). The antenna front-end consists of 32 tiles where each tile has 8×8 Ku-band stacked patch antenna elements. Optical True Time Delays (TTDs) in an Optical Beam Forming Network (OBFN) enable a squint free beam steering over the whole band to geostationary satellites. The Ku-band antenna itself covers the whole frequency band in input impedance matching and radiation pattern. The performance of a Ku-band antenna tile will be discussed. A design is presented for the structural integration of 32 tiles and the associated optical beam forming networks into a fuselage panel of an aircraft.