Low cost space-fed reconfigurable phased array for spacecraft and aircraft applications

摘要

A phased array antenna system including a front-end circuit having a plurality of antenna channels, each including a front antenna element and a rear antenna element, that provides a spatially combined beam. Each antenna channel includes a beam scan phase shifter and a true time delay phase shifter through which the receive signals or the transmit signals propagate. The system further includes a back-end circuit spaced from the front-end circuit and including an antenna receiving the receive signals from the rear elements or transmitting the transmit signals to the rear elements. The back-end circuit further includes an ortho-mode transducer that separates the transmit signal or the receive signal into orthogonally polarized signals, and a pair of couplers and a pair of polarization phase shifters that combine to adjust the polarization of the transmit signal or the receive signal. The spatially combined beam is reconfigurable in beam shape and its location.