WS1: AMTA Workshop - Measurement Techniques for Multi-beam Antennas
Organisers
I. Roberts, Eutelsat S.A., France
D. Janse van Rensburg, NSI, USA
L. J. Foged, MVG, France
Abstract
In recent years, there has been an increasing need for products and related testing of antennas providing multiple beams in civilian and military communication, aerospace, RF and microwave communities. The goal of the AMTA workshop is to discuss challanges and avances of near-field multi-beam antenna measurements, to show state-of-the art measurement systems and discuss new developments and promising approaches. The workshop is based on invited speakers that will cover pertinent aspects of multi beam antenna testing followed by a panel a discussion. AMTA workshops are famous for lively discussions and high audience partecipation. Please bring your questions as well.
Programme
Multi-Beam Antenna Testing - A Spacecraft Operators Perspective, Ian Roberts.
The increasing demand for High Throughput and Ka-Band Multi-Spot Spacecraft and flexible payloads using array antennas leads to a need for more extensive testing than is normally required for the majority of types of antennas currently being flown. The prospective use of the Q and V-Bands for multi-beam antennas introduces additional constraints. This presentation will address the current types of RF testing performed on multi-beam antennas and the foreseen challenging areas related to future multi-beam antenna applications on commercial spacecraft. In-orbit testing aspects will also be reviewed.
Near-field test systems for multi-beam antennas, Daniël Janse van Rensburg
Multi-beam antennas with agile beam steering capability are ideal candidates for testing in the near-field. The highspatial density of acquisition and the huge volume of measurement makes it imperative to use sophisticated RF sub-systems that can cope with the data throughput, allow for analog or digital input and enables automated transmit/receive switching. Electrical and thermal considerations also make it desirable to test theseantennasin their nominal transmit/receive operating mode as opposed to transmit-only or receive-only. The NSI,RF measurement system architeture supports suchmultiplextransmit and receive, pulse-mode measurements, with varying measurement parameters during the course of a single acquisition. This capability also allows pulsed transmit and receive tests tobe interleaved using a single measurement setup. This presentation willgive an overview of these applications and touch on some of the critical factorsdriving an efficient solution.
Multibeam antenna system testing based onfast probe array technology and the application of aggresive undersampling schemes in future testing schenarios, Lars Jacob Foged
The testing of modern and future multibeam antennas is moving away from functional verificationof the antennaas a component and towards testing the multibeam antenna as part of a closed system. Examples of this trendare End-to-End testing of satellite systems and Active Antenna Stations (AAS) for the upcoming 5G cellular networks. In such testing scenarios, direct access to the antenna may not be feasible and often the signals are highly modulated. Near field antenna testing has many desirable qualities and is considered a cost and time effecient testing methology. A limiting feature of near field testing is the sampling requirementand dependance on aquisitionof bothamplitude and phase information. This presentation will discuss the application of advanced probe array technology andphase recovery techniques from modulated signals in the effecient near field testing of multibeam antennas systems. A breif discussion on taking advantage ofapriori information about the antenna, such as results from numerical modelling and previus measurementsand including it in the testing methodology to radicallyreduce the sampling requirements will also be covered.
