DBF Technology Development for Next Generation of ESA CBand SAR mission

Airbus DS in Friedrichshafen develops a technology aiming at next generation of ESA Sentinel-1 mission. An overview of these activities is given in this paper. In the first step a short summary of future antenna architecture and benefits on mission level are given. In the next part a core unit enabling Digital Beamforming is described along with its functionalities and architecture. In the last part of the paper a demonstrator for C-Band Digital Beamforming is outlined. The activities will enable significant increase of efficiency of Sentinel-1 NG mission by remarkable extension of swath width while maintaining or even increasing the resolution (High Resolution Wide Swath - HRWS).