Ka-band Choke-ring Horn TT&C Antennas Combining Conventional Milling and Aluminum Selective Laser Melting Manufacturing

This paper presents the results of an R&T activity led by Anywaves with the support of CNES on Ka-band choke-ring horn antennas for future Telemetry, Tracking and Control satellite applications. Two metal-only antenna topologies operating in the frequency band 29.5–30 GHz have been designed and optimised for hemispherical coverage radiation patterns. Two prototypes, using only conventional milling for the first and a combination of conventional milling and selective laser melting for the second antenna, have been fabricated and tested so that the numerically calculated RF performance of the antennas can be validated. On-platform simulations have also been performed to characterise the sensitivity of the antennas’ radiation patterns.