Electronic Scanning Reflector for the AN/SPS-49

Mechanically pointed antenna systems are prone to wear, with repair and replacement often requiring new parts and port-side maintenance. In an effort to refresh this technology and greatly reduce life-cycle costs, the performance benefits of electronic beamsteering are sought. However, this must be realized in a low cost, complexity, and weight solution. Yet, the current suite of AESA/PESA technologies must crucially address their extremely high cost and weight (incurred by phase shifters, amplifiers, and highly complex signal distribution networks), as well as poor power tolerance and thermal performance, to meet the requirements of a viable operational system, and compatibility with the demands of the SPS-49 radar. We circumvent the limitations of conventional electronic scanning arrays (ESA) and reflectors, by combining the high efficiency free-space illumination of a reflector with the active beam control of an ESA to form an Active Electronically Steered Reflectarray (AESR). This novel approach is further advanced with our existing innovations in low-profile wideband design, leading to large operating bandwidth and high power tolerance. Together with novel low loss and high linearity, full-aperture electronic beamsteering and simultaneous multi-frequency operation, the result is an unprecedented platform for flexible multi-beam naval radars. The proposed Phase I effort investigate feasibility of: a. Realization of electronic beam steering/shaping in both elevation and azimuth, during transmit and receive; b. Substantial power, efficiency, and complexity savings over conventional phased arrays through free-space illumination of the array and elimination of lossy and bulky waveguide signal distribution; c. Independent multi-beam control while maintaining full aperture gain; d. High power handling, with minimal loss and heating; e. Capability for multi-band; and f. Extremely low cost, low-profile, lightweight, mechanically simple, modular, and COTS parts driven implementation.