Comparison of measured and modeled performance of a tensioned membrane waveguide array antenna

For a variety of applications, it is desirable to have very large space-based antennas. As the physical size increases, antennas constructed of conventional materials become too bulky and heavy to be practical for space applications. For this reason, there is interest in finding new methods of fabricating large antennas which exhibit significantly lighter weight than conventional antennas. The lightweight antenna configuration investigated herein is a slotted waveguide array antenna with an integral microstrip feed, constructed of a metalized membrane material. Detailed finite element method (FEM) models of key components and the entire array have been developed. A prototype 104-element L-band array has been fabricated and tested. This work presents a comparison of measured and modeled performance of the tensioned membrane waveguide array antenna.