An Investigation on Noise Figure Measurement of Multi-Beam Satellite System

Abstract

In this paper, a method of measuring the noise figure of multi-beam satellite is presented. The connection between a single channel and multi-channel noise figure of multi-beam system is discussed. Derivation shows that the single channel noise figure can be used to calculate the multi-beam noise figure through the amplitude coefficient of beam forming. A simulation verified the method by a multi-beam S-parameter model. In the noise figure measurement of a twelve channels return link beam, measured data showed good agreement with theory results. The proposed method is able to make the measurement of noise figure of multi-beam system simplified, it can be widely applied to the noise figure measurement of multi-beam or phased array system.