Phased Array Antenna Analysis Workflow Applied to Gateways for LEO Satellite Communications

Abstract

Nowadays, mega-constellations of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites have become increasingly important to provide high-performance Internet access with global coverage. This paper provides an updated comparison of four of the largest LEO mega-constellations: Telesat, SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon. It describes the gateway design workflow from the patch antenna to phased array analysis. Patch antennas are developed for both transmission and reception after a thorough examination of the four systems. The results of electromagnetic simulation using Advanced Design Software (ADS) Momentum are shown, including their radiation pattern. Finally, a model of the gateway phased array using SystemVue is obtained using hexagonal, circular, and square arrays. According to the required effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) and gain, the antenna sizes for the four constellations are estimated. As an example, for SpaceX constellation, a reception antenna with 8910 radiating elements using a hexagonal distribution with a gain of 46.9 dB and a sensitivity of −113.1 dBm was obtained.