An active discrete lens antenna for Ka-band multibeam applications

Operational multi-beam broadband payloads use onboard antennas usually constituted by 3 or 4 large reflectors, with no flexibility in terms of traffic variations. Possible configurations based on a single aperture antenna have been investigated in the framework of several activities promoted by the European Space Agency (ESA). One of the single aperture antenna architecture particularly promising is based on a constrained non periodic active lens (bootlace like). The paper reports the last results obtained in the development of such an antenna. In particular, the lens antenna working in Ka-band is generating a multiple spot beam coverage from a geostationary satellite. This type of antenna enables adaptive beam power assignment, can be designed for low side-lobe levels at large steering angles and does not require any beam-forming network.