Digital beamforming antenna array with polarisation multiplexing for mobile high‐speed satellite terminals at Ka‐band

In this contribution, a planar antenna array terminal for mobile satellite communications at Ka‐band is proposed. This Earth station on mobile platform uses separate transmit and receive apertures to obtain a flat design well suited for aeronautical applications. Digital beamforming is applied for fast beam scanning, tracking, and enhanced post‐processing capabilities. The active antenna elements exhibit dual polarisation to comply with a four‐colour spot beam arrangement commonly used by high‐throughput satellites. Advanced frontend packaging concepts for a high integration density enable half wavelength element spacing. This prevents grating lobes and yields a large scanning range. A modular approach allows to flexibly adapt the array size to the application specific needs. An 8 × 8 receiver (Rx) array at 20 GHz and a 16 × 3 transmitter array at 30 GHz are demonstrated. The measured results obtained in conjunction with inter‐element decoupling validate the approach. The principal suitability of the Rx array for the intended application is tested in a field experiment.