Application of High-Temperature Superconductivity to Antenna Arrays with Analog Signal Processing Capability

Microwave applications of HTS can in principle take advantage of the extremely low conductor losses, the nonlinear response of the conductivity in high fields and of the Josephson effects. The low conductor losses allow the realization of extremely miniaturized passive low-power components with high performance. Therefore, microwave circuits for adaptive and frequency selective analog signal processing in antenna arrays which require a large number of couplers, switchable delay-elements and high-Q filters can be realized as very compact planar circuits which share a common cooling system. The utilization of HTS in the antenna elements is justified in case of special performance antennas.