Phased Arrays for Satellite Communications: Recent Developments at Astrium Ltd

With increasing interest in flexible antenna solutions for satellite communications, and the increasing maturity of some of the technologies required, phased arrays are once again the subject of active research and development for civil satellite communications. It is well known that beamforming complexity is a significant deterrent to their widespread adoption. This paper describes work carried out recently in Astrium Ltd, aimed at simplifying the beamforming requirements in a class of phased array antennas without unacceptable compromise in performance.