DEVELOPMENT OF 61-CHANNEL DIGITAL BEAMFORMING (DBF) TRANSMITTER ARRAY FOR MOBILE SATELLITE COMMUNICATION

An 61-channel digital beamforming transmitter array antenna used in mobile satellite communication is presented in this paper. It can steer 16 beams simultaneously. The interface, architecture and subunits are described in detail. Standard hexagonal array (SHA) and 61-channel RF front ends are designed. Genetic Algorithm is adopted to realize the pattern synthesis with muti-objective optimization. The signal flow and hardware platform of the digital beamforming network are discussed, which can complete the high speed array signal processing with maximum throughput of 34.16 Gbps. A novel calibration scheme with high feasibility of project implementation is also proposed. The measurements of array antenna match well with simulation result, which validates the rationality and feasibility of the algorithms and project design.