Multibeam array using Rotman lens and RF heterodyne

Author

Lee, J.J. ; Valentine, G.W.

Author_Institution

Hughes Aircraft Co., Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

3

fYear

1996

fDate

21-26 July 1996

Firstpage

1612

Abstract

An RF heterodyne technique applied to a Rotman lens to reduce the size of the beamforming network for an airborne antenna operating at L-band is presented. An example is given for a multibeam transmit array with 48 columns of radiating elements and 60 beam positions. To fit the antenna in the limited space on the aircraft, the feed network can be reduced ten times in size by mixing two input signals at X- or Ku-band. The method is also applicable to the receive mode, and a fiber optic version may be implemented to achieve a even more compact and flexible feed network.

Keywords

aircraft communication; antenna feeds; lens antennas; mobile antennas; multibeam antennas; transmitting antennas; Ku-band; L-band; RF heterodyne; X-band; airborne antenna; aircraft; beam positions; beamforming network; feed network; fibre optic Rotman lens; input signals mixing; multibeam array; multibeam transmit array; radiating elements; receive mode; Aircraft; Apertures; Dielectric substrates; Feeds; L-band; Lenses; Optical design; Phased arrays; Probes; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium, 1996. AP-S. Digest

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3216-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/APS.1996.549908

Filename

549908