Experimental APAA for satellite communications

In this paper, an APAA (Active Phased Array Antenna) for X-band satellite communications is introduced. The APAA can electronically steer its beam with wide range, /spl plusmn/37 degrees. The system was designed experimentally before practical model design. It will be installed on the ship finally. To confirm its functional performance, it was tested on the motion simulator with the satellite RF simulator. The motion simulator can operate with the wide range 3D movement. The APAA has its M&C (monitoring and control) functions, which show the beam directions as well as the other status during its operating.