Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2018
The paper describes the design and development of a low profile wide scanned conformal active 1 × 32 phased array antenna for Ku-band SATCOM applications. The realized antenna is diagonally polarized and covers full transmit frequency band (i.e. 13.75–14.5 GHz) of Ku band SATCOM. All the developed sub-systems of the antenna, i.e. conformal radiating array, conformal transmit module, manifold network, and beam steering unit are described. The VSWR of the antenna is better than 1.65 over the complete transmit frequency band. The antenna has the beam steering capability of ±60° in the array plane. Designed antenna is best suited for airborne applications, where antenna profile contributes considerable aero drag and RCS to the host platform.