W-band Array Antenna for Radar Detection of Space Debris

摘要

The risk of space debris impact on working spacecraft and satellites is an increasing concern among the space research organizations. On-board debris detection and tracking systems are required to prevent fatal damages in the spacecraft. Millimeter-wave frequencies are mandatory in order to achieve high accuracy radar detectors with compact size. In this regard, a circularly polarized high gain array antenna at 94 GHz has been manufactured by diffusion bonding. A corporate waveguide feeding network is implemented to uniformly excite a 16x16 radiating cavity array. A 5.5% bandwidth has been experimentally obtained with gain over 29.7 dB, axial ratio under 3 dB and impedance matching under -10 dB. The proposed topology is eligible for a space debris detection radar.