Agence Spatiale Europeene

Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique

European Space Agency

Cornelis G Van't Klooster

Antoine G Roederer

Jean-Charles Bolomey

Elguja Medzmariashvili

Leri Datashvili

Julian B Santiago Prowald

Nodar Tsignadze

Alexander Ihle

Nikoloz Medzmariashvili

A multi-faceted deployable antenna frame including a six-bar linkage structure in a lateral facet of the antenna frame, the six-bar linkage structure being convertible from a folded state into a deployed state and having two first bars and four second bars, each bar being coupled to two others by a hinge to form a closed loop, where in the deployed state, the six-bar linkage structure has a quadrilateral shape. The antenna frame also includes a deployment means for deploying the antenna frame by moving the six-bar linkage structures from the folded state into the deployed state, the deployment means including: a flexible, elongated member of a substantially inextensible material; a first guiding means provided at an end portion of one of the first bars and coupled to the elongated member; a storage means provided at the first bar that includes the first guiding means for storing a part of the elongated member; a driving means that is coupled to the elongated member to pull the elongated member to the storing means when deploying the antenna frame; and a second guiding means between two adjacent second bars, the elongated member being coupled to the second guiding means. A first end of the elongated member is attached to the storing means and a second end of the elongated member is coupled to another first bar, and wherein the elongated member is extending between said first end and said second end along a plurality of second bars.

Deployable antenna frame

A compact range for the determination of the radiation pattern of a first antenna (1), comprises a focusing system (3) and apparatus (2) supporting the first antenna in the quiet zone of the focusing system. For that purpose, the base comprises a modulated-retransmission probe array (6, 16) mounted in the focal plane (7) of the focusing system, a second antenna (10, 17) mounted near the probe array, apparatus (13) to determine, from the electromagnetic radiation retransmitted by the probe array and collected by one of the antennas during the transmission of electromagnetic radiation by the other, a signal SI representing the field at each point of the probe array, and a display (14) for displaying the signal.

Method and apparatus for determining antenna radiation patterns

The apparatus comprises: an array of N radiating elements, subdivided into P subarrays of M elements each, each beam of a specified pattern using a plurality of elements selected from the elements of at least some of the subarrays; a common signal source; power divider means having one input and N outputs to distribute the signal delivered by the source; amplifier means for amplifying said signal; and means for selectively exciting at least some of the elements with the amplified signal at a controlled phase shift so as to obtain the radiation pattern specified for the antenna. According to the invention, the apparatus is provided, between the power divider means and the radiating elements, with: P groups of M phase shifter-and-amplifier modules placed at the output of the power divider means; and P couplers each having M inputs and M outputs, said M inputs being connected to the M corresponding outputs of the associated group of phase shifter-and-amplifier modules, and said M outputs being connected to the M elements of the associated subarray. The phase shifts of the phase shifter-and-amplifier modules are selected in such a manner as to direct the power delivered by the source to those radiating elements that contribute to the specified radiation pattern, and thus to provide distributed amplification of the signal emitted by the source while maintaining an essentially identical and constant load on each amplifier regardless of the changes made to the radiation pattern.

Apparatus for electronically controlling the radiation pattern of an

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Ge Voorhout, Netherlands

Cornelis G Van't Klooster