Advancements in large mesh reflector technology for multi-beam antenna applications

Communications satellite capacity is an important factor in meeting ever increasing user demand while efficiently utilizing limited frequency spectrum and orbital slot resources. Satellite antennas and their associated earth coverage play an important role in system capacity due to their influence on user spectrum distribution and re-use. Traditionally, antenna aperture size is limited to 1-3 meters due to launch envelope and mass constraints. As a result, regional shaped beam coverage is typically used in the C and Ku bands, requiring limited frequency spectrum to be shared across a large population of users. The advent of Ka band systems has resulted in more spectrally efficient multi-spot beam architectures that provide dramatic increases in system capacity by allowing frequency reuse within regional coverage areas. Mesh reflector technology, including both unfurlable and fixed (non-unfurlable) designs, provide the ability to overcome the inherent aperture size constraints associated with traditional solid reflector technology and implement higher capacity multi-spot beam antenna systems. In the C and Ku bands, regional shaped beam coverage can be upgraded to multi-spot beam solutions that are traditionally only available at Ka band. At Ka band, larger mesh reflectors enable smaller spot beams and dramatic increases in satellite capacity through expanded frequency reuse. In this paper, we describe the state of mesh reflector technology including space reflector legacy and recent advances supporting high frequency spot beam implementations.