Flat panel AESAs for SATCOM links: Design and array synthesis

This paper describes the design and analysis of flat panel AESAs (active-electronically steered array) Ku band SATCOM phased arrays. The goal of this work was three-fold: Perform link budget calculations for a Ku band SATCOM link for a GEO satellite, and calculate TX and RX system parameters in terms of EIRP and G/T. The system parameters are translated to size of the antenna array, antenna type, output power of the TX IC and Noise figure of the RX IC. Beamformer architectures are briefly compared, and recommendations are made for SATCOM applications including component selection. Finally, antenna analysis is performed which includes array synthesis and error calculations.