Compensating Reflector Deformations exploiting Digital Beamforming in Array Fed Reflector antennas

Spaceborne reflector antennas are critical in satellite missions but are sensitive to structural deformations from manufacturing tolerances and thermoelastic effects in orbit. Even small errors can degrade gain, sidelobes, and pointing. Array-fed reflectors (AFRs), combining a parabolic reflector with a digitally beamformed phased array feed, provide flexibility in beam shaping and enable digital-domain correction of such distortions. In this work, we analyse a representative AFR system subject to random surface errors modeled by Zernike polynomials. A Monte Carlo study quantifies the effect of distortions on antenna gain, and a matched filtering strategy is applied to compensate them. The results show that digital beamforming can recover performance without mechanical inter vention, enhancing the robustness of reflector-based satellite antennas.