Development of Direct Radiating Arrays for Future Ku Band Telecom Applications

Direct radiating arrays can provide multiple, reconfigurable and steerable beams from a single aperture with great potential for TELECOM applications. In principle, this type of antenna system can provide the satellite operators with the ability to carry out in-orbit changes to the satellite communication coverage and to even allow the satellite to be operated from different orbital slots. However, this flexibility from a DRA requires relatively complex hardware to be used requiring a potentially large number of radiating elements and amplifiers and also complex beamforming networks. In addition, large non-recurring engineering costs could occur in trying to tailor his type of antenna system to a wide range of missions. This paper will discuss new ideas for developing these types of antenna system including the range of possible architectures and the choice of technologies that can be used.