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LOW-COST DIPLEXED MULTIPLE BEAM INTEGRATED ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR LEOSATELLITE CONSTELLATION

  • US 20160218436A1
  • Filed: 01/28/2015
  • Published: 07/28/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2015
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An integrated antenna system for a satellite, said antenna system comprising:

  • a support structure including a base plate and a strut assembly mounted to the base plate and defining an enclosure, said support structure further including an alignment plate mounted to the strut assembly opposite to the base plate;

    a plurality of feed horns mounted to the alignment plate in a rigid manner so that each feed horn has a predetermined pointing direction, each feed horn including a plurality of tapered sections defining transitions therebetween that support propagation modes for both up-link signals and down-link signals, each feed horn further including an input end and an aperture end;

    a plurality of septum polarizers where a separate septum polarizer is coupled to the input end of each feed horn, each septum polarizer converting circularly polarized signals to linearly polarized signals for the up-link signals received by the feed horn and converting linearly polarized signals to circularly polarized signals for the down-link signals to be transmitted by the feed horn;

    a Y-shaped waveguide including a polarizer port, a transmit leg and a receive leg, said polarizer port being coupled to the septum polarizer opposite to the feed horn, wherein the receive leg includes a transmit reject filter for selectively passing the up-link signals and rejecting the down-link signals and the transmit leg includes a receive reject filter for selectively passing the down-link signals and rejecting the up-link signals;

    an RF circuit board mounted on the base plate within the enclosure and including a plurality of RF modules for processing the up-link and down-link signals; and

    a plurality of flex waveguides where a separate flex waveguide is coupled to the receive leg of each Y-shaped waveguide and one of the RF modules and coupled to the transmit leg of each Y-shaped waveguide and one of the RF modules to direct the down-link signals from the RF module to the transmit leg and direct the up-link signals from the receive leg to the RF module.

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