Electronic steering

A main focus of antenna development at IMST GmbH is smart antennas, also called intelligent antennas, e.g. phased arrays. These types of antennas, which incorporate in general active components for beam steering, have achieved ever more popularity in the last years, mainly driven by satellite based multimedia mobile applications. Nowadays mobile satellite terminals, either for maritime, aeronautical or land applications, must be able to track one or more satellites and provide sufficient bandwidth.

Different concepts of steerable antennas

The complexity of such antenna systems, developed by IMST, ranges from small arrays with switchable elements and partially mechanically and electronically steerable arrays – hybrid antenna systems - to fully electronically steerable arrays. Such systems can be equipped with phase and amplitude shifters for each element, or the design can be based on Digital Beam Forming (DBF). This technique, in which the steering is performed directly on a digital level, allows the most flexible and powerful control of the antenna beam.