Development of the SANDRA antenna for airborne satellite communication

Novel avionics communication systems are required for increasing flight safety and operational integrity, for optimizing economy of operations and for enhancing passenger services. One of the key technologies to be developed is an antenna system that will provide broadband connectivity within aircraft cabins at an affordable price. This paper describes the development of an electronically steered K_u-band phased array antenna with low aerodynamic profile. The antenna front-end consists of at least 1800 antenna elements, of which the beam has to be steered continuously to geostationary satellites. Best performance for the beam steering is expected from a hybrid architecture with small sub-apertures having their local own beamformers (using phase shifters). The beamformer to steer the sub-apertures of the entire antenna uses True Time Delays with an optical ring resonator.