The Development of a Professional Antenna for Galileo

R. Granger, P. Readman, S. Simpson

Abstract:	With the availability of the Galileo system rapidly approaching, industry is developing technology to exploit the new signals. This paper describes one such activity aimed at the professional user segment. The Galileo Joint Undertaking, Area 1B “Technological Development”, as one of its initiatives, has entered into contract for the development of advanced receiver technology for Galileo called “Advanced Receiver Terminal for User Services” (ARTUS). The ARTUS project, as a whole, addresses the development of technology for a complete receiver system for Galileo. However, this paper concerns the design and development of a “professional antenna” for high-precision ground-based geodetic applications. The paper will address the extra technical performance issues concerned with accessing the Galileo signal as compared to the GPS signal. The need for wide-band performance coupled with high phase centre stability results in a very demanding requirement, satisfied by only a few antenna technologies. The relationships between gain and phase patterns and antenna aperture distribution are examined and it is explained how these theoretical parameters relate to the phase centre stability and the mechanical layout of the antenna’s radiating structure. By doing this much physical insight is gained into why some antenna technologies can be expected to perform better than others. Significant use has been made of both numerical simulation tools and anechoic chamber measurements of prototype hardware, and a post-processing environment has been developed to visualise the movement of the antenna’s apparent phase centre with signal direction of arrival and frequency. In the final analysis, usability and suitability as well as cost and production issues are real world factors that impinge on a practical solution, and the case is made for a new GNSS professional antenna.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2006) September 26 - 29, 2006 Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth, TX
Pages:	799 - 806
Cite this article:	Granger, R., Readman, P., Simpson, S., "The Development of a Professional Antenna for Galileo," Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2006), Fort Worth, TX, September 2006, pp. 799-806.
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