A Ka-Band 64-Element Deployable Active Phased-Array TX on a Flexible Hetero Segmented Liquid Crystal Polymer for Small Satellites
Dongwon You, Xi Fu, Hans Herdian, Xiaolin Wang, Yasuto Narukiyo, Ashbir Aviat Fadila, Ho‐Jun Lee, Michihiro Ide, Sena Kato, Zheng Li, Yun Wang, Daisuke Awaji, Jian Pang, Hiraku Sakamoto, Kenichi Okada, Atsushi Shirane
Abstract
A <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Ka$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band 64-element deployable active phased-array transmitter (TX) on a hetero segment liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate for small satellites is proposed. The proposed phased-array TX achieved a large array size implementation and a small form factor with integrated six-layer and two-layer LCP substrates. Antenna and transmission line designs considering hetero layer structure are presented in detail. Achieving 46.7 dBm electronically isotropically radiated power (EIRP), the proposed phased-array TX can support 256-APSK DVB-S2X. As a result, the proposed deployable active phased-array TX successfully realizes low-launch cost with a 9.65 g lightweight and large antenna aperture size with superior EVM performance.