Innovative Antenna Concepts for DLR's Fully Polarimetric Low-Frequency Transponders

Inhalt:
With the Kalibri project [1], DLR has designed, manufactured and operated transponder systems tailored to the in-orbit calibration of modern spaceborne SAR systems. With upcoming SAR instruments, low frequencies (L and P-band), high bandwidths and fully polarimetric acquisitions come into play and introduce new challenges to the design of calibration transponders. We introduce DLR’s recently launched Kalibri Next Generation project and its transponder concepts aiming at future missions. Furthermore, the development of dual-polarization and low-frequency antenna concepts for calibration transponders and the application of innovative antenna manufacturing techniques is presented.