EIRP and C/I analysis of multibeam active phased array transmit antennas for communication satellites

A comprehensive model is developed to analyze performance of a multibeam active phased array antenna used in a high traffic capacity TDMA satellite communications system. The model includes the effects of intermodulation distortion, sidelobe level interference, partial array failure, pointing errors, and amplitude and phase errors. The performance of a Ka-band 64 beam satellite antenna system based on a modular tile approach is assessed in terms of C/I ratio and EIRP performance. The results presented show the graceful degradation characteristics in high communication traffic applications in terms of partial array failures and array errors.