A Review of Multibeam Phased Array Antennas as LEO Satellite Constellation Ground Station

Small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) are typically organized as a satellite constellation. The satellite number of a LEO satellite constellation would be several hundred or even tens of thousands to realize a fully global coverage. This imposes a big challenge on ground station for satellite ordinary management and control operation. Phased array antennas are considered as attractive candidates for future satellite ground station. The primary reason is that phased array antennas can produce numbers of beams by the beamforming network thus support multiple satellites simultaneously. This paper aims to provide a tutorial-like review on phased array antennas as satellite ground station. The advantages of phased array antennas for this application are summarized by comparing them with traditional reflector antennas. Several array geometries for realizing the hemispherical coverage required for satellite tracking are presented. System architecture are given, and some considerations for engineering practice about phased array antenna based satellite ground station are also discussed.