A Novel Multi-beam Array Antenna For Tracking Formation Satellites

In the late 1980s, plenty of work began to be put on the research of mini-satellite. Since the 1990s, the rapid developments of microelectronic technology and nanotechnology have significantly benefited to the technology and foundations material of modern mini-satellite. Now, the research of mini-satellite and its application have entered into a new time. The formation flying of small satellite is an important application of mini-satellite's and is also a trend of future mini-satellite's development. The first problem to be solved is tracking satellite and inter-satellite communication.At present, major phased array antennas apply planar array, the electrical scanning range can reach up to 120°. Although the calculation model is simple and the implementation technology becomes gradually perfect, it still has implicit limitations, thus makes the application restricted.In this article, the simplest two-element array and three types of common configurations of arrays are illustrated and the antenna functions are also analyzed. A three-dimensional (3D) array antenna is investigated and implemented on Matlab. 3D array antenna can form different types of arrays to scan any space through choosing different elements. This paper introduces a general direction function of 3D array antenna and simulations of three typical types of arrays formed: diagonal planar array, trapezoidal array and curved surface array. It also investigates the differences of the beam patterns, element spacing and element number effect on beam. And it presents selecting basis of maximum element spacing.In this report, the performance of three kinds of classic adaptive algorithms: LMS, DMI, RLS are analyzed. It simulates the tracking process between TTRSS and target satellites under two adaptive tracking algorithms (LMS, DMI) by using MATLAB software. It also compares the performance of two tracking algorithms against the variation of signal-to-interference ratio (SIR). At last, 3D antenne is used to trace an object with two adaptive algorithms (LMS, DMI) and the tracking process is simulated by using MATLAB software.