Conformal Phased Array for DISTURB
W. Bouwmeester (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
A. Yarovyi – Mentor (TU Delft - Microwave Sensing, Signals & Systems)
A Endo – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Tera-Hertz Sensing)
D. Prinsloo – Graduation committee member (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON))
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Abstract
Mankind becomes ever more reliant on wireless technology like mobile communications, navigation and radar. This development has resulted in more sensitive receivers, but this increased sensitivity also has increased the susceptibility of these receivers to interference from external sources. One of these sources that is known to disrupt terrestrial communications is the Sun. The DISTURB project aims to provide the means to observe and study interference phenomena generated by the Sun between frequencies of 10 MHz and 3 GHz. Furthermore, DISTURB stations should provide the ability to observe the Sun from sunrise to sunset, at any location in the world and thus require full hemispherical coverage. This master thesis project is concerned with the design of a conformal phased array antenna for a novel application in radio astronomy. The goal of this project is to provide an initial conformal array design that is able to provide full hemispherical coverage in the 1500 MHz to 3 GHz band of the DISTURB project. A quasi-spherical array of radius 1.55 metres and with 343 crossed modified bow-tie antenna elements, distributed using a novel geodesic topology, is proposed and found to satisfy DISTURB requirements in the frequency range of 1.3 to 3 GHz. Hence, the designed array is found to achieve a fractional bandwidth of 79% and therefore even exceeds the initial design goal. Finally, the designed array is compared to a parabolic reflector antenna, resulting in an insight in the complexity of a conformal phased array antenna design and the advantages and disadvantages such a conformal phased array antenna may bring to the DISTURB project.