Airborne electronically-switched Luneberg lens antenna system

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Airborne electronically-switched Luneberg lens antenna system

Cooke, W.P. / Blount, D.R. / Coon, J.B.

An airborne lightweight S-band telemetry (TM) antenna system was designed and fabricated to collect TM data on inbound targets to the Kwajalein Missile Range. It, along with other TM instrumentation, is carried on a C-7A aircraft. The antenna system operates in the 2.2-2.3 GHz frequency range using a lightweight Luneberg lens. The 30-inch diameter lens is illuminated by an array consisting of four ortho-mode quad-ridged circular waveguide feeds. These devices are capable of instantaneous left- and right-hand-circular polarizations. The antenna system has four modes of operation; these modes are: (1) a manual mode, where all four feeds can be individually selected, (2) an automatic mode, where any feed can be automatically selected by the electronics depending upon which beam contains the largest signal, (3) a two-beam combine mode, where two interior beams are coherently summed, and (4) a four-beam combine mode, where all four feeds are coherently summed. In the automatic mode, the antenna is an electronic beam switch system that provides approximately the same pattern coverage as the four-beam sum mode with mode antenna gain than the four-beam sum mode. Some of the more salient features of the antenna systems include: antenna system operating temperature of 216 K, (2) minimum receiver sensitivity of -99 dBm (used for the automatic beam selection), and (3) 160 lb total weight for the antenna system.