A New Era in Elemental Digital Beamforming for Spaceborne Communications Phased Arrays

This paper discusses the advantages of digital beamforming (DBF), both generally and specific to satellite communications antennas, and briefly describes some of its early implementations. A discussion of recent advances in analog-to-digital converter (ADC) technology is followed by a description of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the IEEE 2016-03, Vol.104 (3), p.623-632
Main Author: Bailleul, Patrick K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antennas
Array signal processing
Arrays
Beamforming
Communication satellites
Digital
Digital array
digital beamformer
Digital beamforming
digital beamforming (DBF)
digital phased array
elemental digital beamforming
Partitioning
Phased arrays
Reflector antennas
Satellite antennas
Satellite communications
Satellites
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Summary:This paper discusses the advantages of digital beamforming (DBF), both generally and specific to satellite communications antennas, and briefly describes some of its early implementations. A discussion of recent advances in analog-to-digital converter (ADC) technology is followed by a description of the basic DBF functionality and tradeoffs in functional partitioning in a DBF array. The application of DBF to a heritage phased array is described to illustrate the benefits of DBF for spaceborne phased arrays. Finally, technology options for DBF implementation in a spaceborne phased array are considered.
ISSN:0018-9219
1558-2256
DOI:10.1109/JPROC.2015.2511661