Economic and time efficient test sytems of next-generation multi-beam antennas and payloads

Future communication satellites equipped with multi-spot beam antennas are providing more than 100 adjacent coverages on earth, creating very high demands for RF measurements during acceptance test campaigns performed prior to the satellites' launch. The antennas' beam isolation and frequency re-use capability require high measurement accuracies for the related test facility and a high time efficiency during the antenna and payload test campaigns considering the high number of beams. Within this presentation, the characteristics of multi-spot beam antennas are described, initially with a typical antenna scenario. In a second step, a facility trade-off is performed in order to identify the best suited test environment for such applications. Lastly, state-of-the-art RF test setups for antenna pattern and payload testing are described and related improvements for increasing the time efficiency and the reduction of risks concerning measurement errors during the test campaigns are discussed.