Research On Automatic Measurement And Calibration System For Phased Array Antenna Of Satellite Communication On-the-Move

With the development of satellite communication technology,SOTM(Satellite communication On-the-Move)technology has become a hot spot for people.Compared with the antenna of the traditional mechanical scanning system,the phased array antenna realizes high-speed beam scanning through the phase shifter,and the tracing velocity is fast,and the beam can be shaped,which is more suitable for satellite communication on a high-speed mobile platform.Phased array antenna for the SOTM are hot topics in current SOTM research。However,the complexity of the phased array antenna is much higher than that of the ordinary antenna.First,the phased array antenna cannot be directly used after the processing and production is completed.It is necessary to first calibrate the amplitude and phase value of the phased array unit channel,and the beam control can be performed after the calibration is completed;And different phase states,the beam shape of the phased array antenna will change,Therefore,measuring the radiation characteristics of a phased array antenna is a complicated task,Need to cooperate with the beam controller to control the phase of different phase shifters,test at different frequency points,and the measurement method is more complicated.In order to cope with this challenge and better guarantee the research and production of the phased array antenna,this paper developed a system for automatic measurement and calibration of the phased array antenna for the SOTM.This paper first introduces the history and current status of SOTM and antenna measurement technology.Then analyze the main performance indicators of SOTM phased array antenna and related far field measurement methods,and the hardware and software design scheme of the phased array antenna measurement and calibration system is described from a holistic perspective.The hardware design includes the site selection of the far field test system,the measuring instruments used by the test system,the test turntable,the beam controller and other hardware devices,and describes the interface protocol between the devices and the calibration test method of the device;The software aspect describes the modular system composition framework and divides the overall process into two aspects: calibration measurement of phased array antennas and automated measurement of electrical performance indicators.In this paper,REV is used to calibrate the phased array antenna in the calibration measurement of the phased array antenna.And improved by the fast Fourier transform method,which improves the speed and accuracy of calibration.Based on the method,a new multi-channel calibration method is designed.Finally,the UI and measurement flow of the software in calibration are describedIn the phased array antenna automatic measurement system,the flow and software features of the phased array antenna measurement software are first introduced.Then explained the main functional design of the system,Comprising a method for synchronizing multiple data acquisition devices,the automatic control program,real-time monitoring and dynamic range adjustment,etc.,Finally,the processing methods of the main test project data and the corresponding error correction methods are given.Finally,the paper gives the error analysis of the measurement calibration system and verifies the system.