IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine - July 2020 - 52

Space Phased Array Antenna Developments: A Perspective on Structural Design

Figure 8.
Coupling relationship of space active phased array antenna.

was also analyzed. With regard to a low-orbit Lband active phased array antenna working at
1.25 GHz developed by the United States Air Force
and NASA, Zulch et al. [59] analyzed the influence
of the antenna surface deformation on the antenna
gain and GMTI. Haugse et al. [60] pointed out that
the distortion in the antenna surface of the spacebased active phased array antenna needs to be
known to within a very small fraction of the wavelength corresponding to the operational frequency
of the space-based antennas (such as one-thirtieth of
the wavelength for spaceborne radar) for the antennas to perform correctly. In particular, a high degree
of surface planarity is essential for effective use of
the ground clutter suppression technique for spaceborne radar applications. It is also critical for applications to spaceborne optical systems and ground
moving target tracking.
2) Calibration and compensation of the electromagnetic information and circuit. Torres et al. [61]
analyzed the effect of vibration and thermal deformation on the electrical performance of the antenna
and corrected the position error of the array elements by means of the external phase reference
method. Pierro et al. [62] analyzed the impact of the
surface deformation, with a maximum deformation
of 10 cm, on the wave shape of MEO spaceborne

deployable active phased array antenna and the
GMTI. According to structural deformation compensation and calibration technology, a method was
proposed by Takahashi et al. [63] to compensate for
the structural deformation caused by the on-orbit
thermal vibration and the launch vibration, which
was divided into three stages: initial calibration,
prelaunch calibration, and on-orbit calibration. Ultimately, the phase error was compensated for each
element. In addition, Murphey et al. [64] provided
insight into the relation between radar deformation
compensation strategies and structural architectures,
where the compensation capabilities are mapped
into structural requirements. The requirements are
then translated into appropriate structural architectures to guarantee the radar performance by calibrating the structure. This method could promote the
development of a complementary combination of
compensation electronics and structural architectures
for spaceborne array antennas. For the array surface
deformation of the Ku-band (17.3-17.8 GHz) spaceborne active phased array antenna, Lier et al. [65]
presented the control circuit coding and calibration
technology.
3) Shape memory and automatic compensation.
Song et al. [66] embedded a shape memory alloy

Figure 9.
Surface deformation of spaceborne deployable phased array antenna.

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JULY 2020

IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine - July 2020

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