L-band phased array antennas for mobile satellite communications

The planar phased array, due to its low profile and beam agility, has been proposed as one of the land vehicle antennas for the U.S. Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X) program. The objective is to develop medium gain satellite tracking antennas (as versus omni low gain antennas) that will alleviate the spacecraft power burden through higher gain, and enable multiple-satellite operation in the same frequency band through narrower beam. In addition, this narrower beam can spatially filter out a significant portion of the undesired multipath component. The major challenges are to seek technologies that will minimize the antenna insertion loss, achieve accurate beam pointing with sufficient inter-satellite isolation, and minimize the antenna production cost.