Efficiency of arrays composed of high-gain reflector antennas

Abstract

Arrays composed of high-gain reflector antennas are used for radio-astronomical purposes and, more recently, are proposed as ground station for deep space communications. This latter application requires a precise knowledge of the degradation that phase, amplitude and pointing fluctuations impose on the capability of the array to combine coherently the signal received or transmitted from each antenna. In this study, an analytical model for the fluctuation of each parameter (phase, amplitude and pointing) is derived and it is used to predict the efficiency of an array composed of an arbitrary number of high-gain reflector antennas. The analytical models are verified by numerical simulations and applied to an array layout currently proposed as possible future ground stations for the European Space Agency.

Cryogenic dual‐temperature low noise amplifier in K band

“…The collecting area, which determines the available received signal, can be modified using a ground station architecture based on arrays composed by several small-to-medium reflector antennas [10,11], where the total number of antennas to be arrayed (i.e. to total collecting area) is defined according to the mission criticalness.…”