Designing an engineering model of reconfigurable antenna for 21-GHz band broadcasting satellite

NHK is developing Super Hi-Vision as ultra high definition TV. In order to transmit rich SHV contents, Satellite broadcasting in the 21-GHz band is expected. We have proposed an array-fed reflector antenna in order to realize wide band and high power transponder combining outputs of each element closely connected high power amplifiers. The proposed antenna is also reconfigurable to exploit the limited resources because of its ability to control radiation pattern for fading mitigation. We have proposed and studied of the reconfigurable antenna system by computing radiation patterns assuming various antenna configurations and measured radiation patterns formed by an experimental array-fed imaging reflector antenna. In order to confirm the feasibility of the proposed reconfigurable antenna system in the space environment, we are on the way to fabricate an engineering model of an array-fed imaging reflector antenna. In this report, we introduced designed configuration and requirement for the engineering model of 21-GHz broadcasting satellite.