Active Spherical Phased Array Design for Satellite Payload Data Transmission

Spherical phased array antennas (SPAAs) are of particular interest for transmission of payload data of low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites to the ground stations. They can be designed to scan large part of the radiation sphere with constant directivity. This helps in designing highly agile spacecrafts. In this paper, practical design aspects of spherical arrays for achieving an optimum configuration to meet a specified goal are discussed. The new concept of sharing the hardware among the radiating elements and the effects of the failure of few of them are also studied in detail. Measured results of two arrays with completely different configurations but providing almost similar performance are discussed corroborating the design concept.