A Ka-Band Deployable Active Phased Array Transmitter Fabricated on 4-Layer Liquid Crystal Polymer Substrate for Small-Satellite Mount

Dongwon You; Xiaolin Wang; Hans Herdian; Xi Fu; Hojun Lee; Michihiro Ide; Carrel Da Gomez; Zheng Li; Jill Mayeda; Daisuke Awaji; Jian Pang; Hiraku Sakamoto; Kenichi Okada; Atsushi Shirane

doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3291814

IEEE Access (Jan 2023)

A Ka-Band Deployable Active Phased Array Transmitter Fabricated on 4-Layer Liquid Crystal Polymer Substrate for Small-Satellite Mount

Dongwon You,
Xiaolin Wang,
Hans Herdian,
Xi Fu,
Hojun Lee,
Michihiro Ide,
Carrel Da Gomez,
Zheng Li,
Jill Mayeda,
Daisuke Awaji,
Jian Pang,
Hiraku Sakamoto,
Kenichi Okada,
Atsushi Shirane

Affiliations

Dongwon You: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Xiaolin Wang: Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Hans Herdian: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Xi Fu: Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Hojun Lee: Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Michihiro Ide: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Carrel Da Gomez: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Zheng Li: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Jill Mayeda: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Daisuke Awaji: Wideband Radio System Development, Electronic Technologies Research and Development Center, Fujikura Ltd., Koto City, Japan
Jian Pang: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Hiraku Sakamoto: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Kenichi Okada: ORCiD; Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan
Atsushi Shirane: Department of Electrical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro City, Japan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3291814
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 11
pp. 69522 – 69535

Abstract

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Lightweight and deployable phased arrays are important in Small-Satellite (Small-Sat) constellation systems to reduce price and increase link distance. This article proposes a Ka-band deployable active phased-array TX on a 4-layer liquid crystal polymer (LCP) board for a lightweight and high stowage rate solution to break through the trade-off between high antenna aperture size and small form factor in phased arrays. This article describes detailed designs of the phased array and its building blocks with the proposed 4-layer LCP substrate structure. Assembled with the beamformer ICs (BFIC), a Ka-band $8 \times 4$ -element deployable active phased-array TX on the 4-layer LCP substrate is fabricated. The proposed deployable phased-array TX can steer the beam from −50° to 50°. The phased-array TX can drive 32-APSK DVB-S2 signal with a −28.7 dB EVM as well, revealing that the deployable phased-array TX performs with high phased-array performance. Furthermore, the TX achieved the lightest and thinnest phased array with 0.96 kg/m2 areal mass and 0.9 mm thickness. This groundbreaking research sets the stage for the realization of affordable and user-centric satellite communication (SATCOM) in low-earth orbit (LEO).

Published in IEEE Access

ISSN: 2169-3536 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering
Website: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6287639

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