Thales

Centre National Detudes Spatiales

Stéphane Rochette

Benjamin Therond

Thierry Adam

Vincent Armengaud

A control node for an array antenna configured so as to apply an attenuation and a phase shift to a radiofrequency signal on the basis of a control signal, to a beamforming network, to an array antenna and to a satellite includes the control node. It comprises a quadratic divider that delivers an in-phase signal and a quadrature signal on separate transmission channels, a combiner configured so as to sum the signals transmitted on two of the transmission channels, each transmission channel comprising at least: one attenuation cell activated on the basis of the value of a dedicated bit of the control signal, and one phase shift cell configured so as to apply a fixed phase shift, activated on the basis of the result of combinational logic implemented on bits of the control signal.

Control node with an octagonal vector constellation for an array antenna

An attenuator is configured to attenuate and phase-shift a radiofrequency signal according to a control signal, having a plurality of first attenuation cells (A, A), configured to attenuate said radiofrequency signal by a predetermined value and activated according to a particular bit of the control signal, and implementing a combinatorial logic on the bits of the control signal that are used to control the first attenuation cells, and at least one second attenuation cell (B, B) configured to attenuate said radiofrequency signal by a predetermined value and activated according to a particular output implementing the combinatorial logic. A control node is also provided for an array antenna having such an attenuator, and an array antenna having an array of such control node and a satellite.

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Toulouse, France

Stéphane Rochette