Control Aspects of Multibeam or Multielement Spacecraft Antennas

Abstract

With the rapid development of spacecraft systems the trend is toward more sophisticated and larger on-board antennas. Many of these antennas employ an array of radiating elements, either as part of a feed system illuminating a larger aperture optics or as the direct radiators. The main purpose of using multiple radiators instead of a radiator in conjunction with a large aperture is to introduce a much larger degree of freedom in achieving desirable antenna characteristics. If an antenna system contains n independent radiating elements then the amplitude and phase of each of these elements can be selected for desirable results.