Large aperture antenna concepts for millimeter wave applications

A novel approach that could meet the requirements of up to 220 GHz reception in the severe thermal environment of space is described which relies on a combination of the classical wrapped rib and electrostatic membrane technology. The wrapped rib configuration can be employed to support the membrane and its associated controlling electrodes. Once deployed, the membrane contour can be electrostatically reconfigured to correct for thermal distortion and off-axis beam scan (i.e. change from parabolic to spherical). The wrap-rib, electrostatic-membrane reflector is several orders of magnitude lighter than the nondeployed rigid reflectors and does not have an aperture constrained by the 4.4-m diameter of a launch vehicle envelope. A multipolarization and multiband cluster feed array used to achieve electronic scan over the millimeter-wave frequency spectrum is also described.<>