Description
The subject of this activity is dedicated to the second generation of Galileo Navigation antennas; specifically, it is aimed to the definition of the navigation antenna architectures solutions and critical components bread-boarding. The objective of the study activities are:
· To investigate and trade-off antenna architectures for GNSS advanced navigation payload satisfying the new needs for higher EIRP and re-configurability. The trade-off shall address three major designs coping with different navigation payloads/services.
· To select a baseline configuration and carry out the design for the three major antenna architectures.
· To identify most critical components of the three architectures and to perform detailed design, manufacturing and validation of selected bread-board(s).
The activity was led by TAS-I (Prime) with VIASAT as subcontractor. Several antenna architectures and radiating elements were traded-off for two different scenarios (MEO and IGSO coverage). Two quasi-fully metallic radiating elements for high power application were designed and one of them was bread-boarded and tested against RF and power handling. Tests results show generally good performance of the bread-boarded element for what concern RF and multipaction. Passive Inter Modulation (PIM) performance needs to be further improved, improving the manufacturing process and material selection of the hardware.
