Phased Array Design for Bounded-Power Consumption Onboard Spacecraft

Abstract

This manuscript presents a technique to perform the initial design of a transmitting phased array in order to provide a given EIRP within a prescribed scan angle while limiting the overall power consumption. Such constraints are typically found in commercial Earth-observation satellite missions. The paper discusses a closed-form approach yielding the optimum number of elements and power capabilities of each transmitting element, from which the antenna elements and the overall array size can be then obtained. A numerical simulated example is provided to support this simple technique.