COMBINED MECHANICAL SCANNING AND DIGITAL BEAMFORMING ANTENNA

摘要

A mechanical scanning and digital beamforming antenna (20) uses a receive and transmit digital beamforming network (320, 410) to provide communications beam scanning in a first plane. In a second plane, a reflective surface (240) is used to focus and scan the communications beam. Through proper orientation of the reflective surface, a communications satellite (10) can be tracked by way of electronic scanning by way of the transmit or receive digital beamforming network. Thus, the complexity of the digital beamforming network is reduced as is the wear on the mechanical components of the antenna. The mechanical scanning and digital beamforming antenna makes use of a second digital beamforming network (325, 415) and reflective surface (250) to ensure that two communications satellites can be simultaneously tracked.