Non-Regular Multibeam Coverage Antenna for Ka-Band High- Throughput Satellite Communications

The paper describes a novel multibeam antenna configuration for high-throughput satellite communications. The spatial traffic demand is assumed proportional to population distribution and is balanced at payload level using a Voronoi diagram-based approach. This approach optimizes beam coverage and traffic per beam while minimizing co-channel interference. The non-regular multibeam coverage is obtained by means of a focal array fed reflector (F AFR) with a passive multi-feed-per-beam (MFPB) beamforming network. An innovative strategy is described for sharing feeds in sub arrays while reducing complexity of the beamforming network (BFN). The FAFR-MFPB antenna configuration is applied to a 70 beams scenario and advanced 3D additive manufacturing techniques are demonstrated to create the complex BFN.