US 11,750,304 B2
Method for calibrating a Ka band Satcom antenna
Pierre-Henri Boutigny, Gennevilliers (FR); and Frédéric Magdelaine, Gennevilliers (FR)
Assigned to THALES, Courbevoie (FR)
Appl. No. 17/253,094
Filed by THALES, Courbevoie (FR)
PCT Filed Jun. 21, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/066488
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 16, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/243584, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 26, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 1800655 (FR), filed on Jun. 22, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0281331 A1, Sep. 9, 2021
Int. Cl. H04B 17/12 (2015.01); H04B 17/21 (2015.01); H01Q 1/42 (2006.01)
CPC H04B 17/12 (2015.01) [H04B 17/21 (2015.01); H01Q 1/421 (2013.01)] 6 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for calibrating an antenna positioned on an aircraft, said antenna being protected by a radome and operating in a band suitable for providing internet communication to a user via a satellite, comprising at least the following steps:
defining a number n of angle positions for the aircraft located in a calibration region, where n is greater than one,
measuring the value of the orientation of the antenna for each position n, [Aa(n), Ea(n)], where Aa(n), Ea(n) correspond to the azimuth and the elevation of the antenna for a position n,
defining the theoretical orientation of the antenna [Aa(n)*, Ea(n)*] taking into account the pitch value, the roll value and the heading value for the aircraft for each position n, and the satellite orientation values [Ar(n), Er(n)]:
[Aa(n)*, Ea(n)*]=F(H(n), P(n), R(n), δH, δP, δR, δE, Ar(n), Er(n)), where F is a chosen geometric function,
where Ar(n), Er(n) are the coordinates of said satellite
defining a criterion C:
C=Σ(Aa(n)−Aa(n)*)2+(Ea(n)−Ea(n)*)2
minimizing the value of the criterion C in order to determine the bias values (δH, δP, δR, δE) from the values [Aa*(n), Ea*(n)] and using said bias values to minimize the differences between the measured angles and the theoretical angles.