Dr. Sudhakar Rao of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems

Antennas are “Eyes and Ears” of modern-day satellite communication systems. They form an important part of any communications payloads influencing the coverage, required gain to close the communication link, bandwidth, capacity/data rates, and polarization. Antenna engineering is a highly specialized skill in the industry and the role of antenna engineer is to develop appropriate products and qualify them for space applications. The 21st century has seen several new satellite services such as local-channel broadcast for direct broadcast satellite service (DBS), high capacity K/Ka-band personal communication satellite (PCS) service, hosted payloads, mobile satellite services using very large deployable reflectors, high power hybrid satellites, etc. Antenna sub-system design, mechanical packaging on the spacecraft, and qualification tests become very critical for these satellites.

This talk will initially address antenna designs for different satellite services. Practical designs for satellite communications using contoured beams, multiple spot beams, and reconfigurable beams will be presented. Space qualification of these antennas through various tests will be described. A test campaign including RF and mechanical qualification takes about 6 to 16 months depending on the complexity of the antenna system. The qualification tests include functional tests (return loss, on-axis axial ratio), polarization tests, isolation tests, radiation patterns, thermal tests, high power tests, PIM tests, thermal vacuum tests, vibration tests, &acoustic tests.  In order to qualify the antenna payloads and perform the above tests, several test facilities are required such as antenna test ranges, thermal chambers, TVAC chambers, PIM test facility, high power test facility, RF bench test, vibration, and acoustic facilities, etc. At the end of this talk, the attendees will be exposed to various antenna types and designs of satellite communication payloads, and test methods & facilities required for space qualification.

Biography:

Dr. Sudhakar Rao is currently working as the Senior Technical Fellow at Northrop Grumman Space Systems providing technical leadership for all divisions of Northrop Grumman in the areas of antennas and payload development for various key programs, proposals and IRAD. Dr. Rao received B. Tech from REC Warangal, M.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and Ph. D in from IIT Madras.He worked at ECIL Hyderabad,LRDE Bangalore, wasthe post-doctoral fellow at the University of Trondheim, Norwayand then worked as a research associate at University of Manitoba, Canada during 1982-1983. Over the past 38 years, he worked at Spar Aerospace Limited, Canada, Boeing Satellite Systems, Lockheed Martin and now at Northrop Grumman and contributed to antenna & payloads for more than 85 different satellites. His work on development of radiation templates for complex satellite antenna patterns for interference analysis was adopted and recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)/CCIR in 1992 as the world-wide standard for satellite manufacturers and operators. He authored over 210 technical papers and was awarded with56patents (51 US &5 European) and 5 trade secrets. He authored and co-edited three text book volumes on “Handbook of Reflector Antennas and Feed Systems” that were published in June 2013 by the Artech House.

Dr. Rao is an IEEE Life Fellow and a Fellow of IETE. He received several awardsincluding theIEEE Benjamin Franklin Key Award in 2006, Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year in 2008, Asian American Engineer of the year award in 2008, IEEE Judith Resnik Technical Field Award in 2009 for pioneering work in aerospace engineering, Boeing’s Special Invention awards in 2001 & 2002, Lockheed Martin’s President Award in 2005, 2007 & 2008, 2009, IEEE Region 6 Outstanding Engineer Award for 2017 and the 2017Northrop Grumman’s President Award for innovations and contributions to key programs. He received Distinguished Alumni Professional Achievement Award from his alma mater NIT Warangal in 2016 and IETE’s Prof. S.N. Mitra Memorial Award in 2016. Recently, he received the 2020 IETE’s Biman Behari Sen Memorial Award.

Dr. Rao servedas the Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE APS and as an AdCom member for IEEE APS. He was the founder and Chair for the IEEE APS “Industry Initiatives Committee” during 2011-2015, IEEE APS Fellow Evaluation Committee member during 2015-2017, founder and Editor of the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Magazine’s “Antenna Applications Corner”, Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas & Propagation, and Associate Editor of IEEE AWPL.He is the Executive Committee Memberfor the InCAP series of conferences in India.Dr. Rao delivered invited and keynote talks for more than 50 conferences world-wide. Recently, he was appointed by the IEEE Board of Directors to serve as the IEEE Fellow Committee member for 2020 & 2021.

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Address:IEEE Life Fellow, Fellow IETE, Senior Technical Fellow, Northrop Grumman Space Systems, USA, Losangles, United States

Dr. C. J. Readdy of Altair USA

Recent advances in Computational electromagnetic (CEM) simulations made them possible to be a cost-effective solution for designing and characterizing antenna measurement facilities. Using both full wave and asymptotic techniques, it is possible to characterize the performance of large measurement facilities such as anechoic chambers and compact antenna test ranges (CATR) with large parabolic reflectors.

The measurement community has a substantial and increasing interest in utilizing computational electromagnetic (CEM) tools to minimize the financial and real estate resources required to design and construct a custom anechoic chamber without sacrificing performance. In this talk, the use of full-wave techniques such as Finite Element Method (FEM) and Multilevel Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM) as well as asymptotic techniques such as Physical Optics (PO) and Ray-Launching Geometrical Optics (RL-GO) for quiet zone characterizations as well as emulation of antenna measurements in both anechoic chambers as well as CATRs will be presented.

Biography:

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Address:Fellow IEEE, ACES and AMTA, Vice President - Business Development, Electromagnetics Altair, United States