A review: Performance of multibeam dual parabolic cylindrical reflector antennas in LEO satellites

Abstract

The characteristics of multibeam dual parabolic cylindrical reflector antennas are summarized in this article. They can generate an arbitrary number of beams with arbitrary tilt angles for each beam. They can be remotely controlled to cover any arbitrary area, of any shape and size, even if the antenna was mounted on a quasi-stationary platform. Their performance in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and ground stations (terminals) have been presented. A simple beam tracking technique was developed. For any specific satellite orbit, the orientation of the ground-station antenna could be adjusted such that its beams are parallel to the satellite's beams and directed toward them. The ground-station antenna can simultaneously communicate with multiple satellites in different orbits. A single antenna can cover the whole mm-band (17.8-30 GHz), which is one of the most widely used bands in LEO satellites. The overall size of a mm-wave antenna, generating 20-24 dB gain, is 14.8x10.4x3.7 cm3 and its weight is 0.37 kg.