The ability of the self-phasing antennas to nor only provide high gain but also to minimize the requirement of satellite attitude control has rendered them very attractive for use in satellite communication systems. The potential advantages and versatility afforded by self-phasing antennas are analyzed in this paper with discussions of results obtained for two specific applications.
The paper begins with a description of two types of self-phasing antennas., namely^ the Van Atta array and the so-called phase conjugation array; similarities and differences in operation of the two types of arrays of various geometrical configurations such as planar^ cylindrical^ and spherical^ are then discussed. Problem areas which are common to both types are indicated and techniques such as array scaling and frequency translation which are useful in dealing with some of these problems are also included in the discussion.
Examples of two specific applications of self-phasing antennas are used to demonstrate their attractive features. The first involves the use of self-phasing arrays on a communication satellite in a critically inclined elliptic orbit. The second deals with the mutual acquisition problem between two vehicles employing selfphasing antennas for space to space communication. In the latter application^ the finite Markov chain technique, is used to analyze the problem and the results are compared with those of the corresponding problem wherein the satellites employ narrow beam antennas pointing at each other to accomplish acquisition. The acquisition condition which would render a self-phasing system more attractive than a narrow beam system are indicated
