GaN-integrated beam-switching high-power active array for satellite communications
Q. Luo1, S. Gao1, N. Cavalho2, K. Osipov3, J. Würfl3, R. Vilaseca4, D. Pham-Minh5, A. Marques6, J. Pinto6, R. Martins7
Published in:
12th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2018), London, UK, Apr 9-13 (2018).
Abstract:
This paper presents an active beam-switching circularly polarized array-fed reflector (AFR) integrated with GaN powered monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). The feed array of the reflector is a multi-layered wideband dual circularly polarized (CP) array antenna. The array antenna uses hexagonal lattice and the antenna elements, each of which is integrated with a GaN power amplifier (PA), are activated in septets for spatial power combination. The GaN technology relies on 4-inch GaN-on-SiC wafers using slanted gate structures with Iridium-based gate metallization. A prototype of the AFR is fabricated as the demonstrator. The reflector has a diameter of 300mm and the feed array consists of 16 antenna elements. The feed array has impedance bandwidth from 17.5-20 GHz with high isolation between antenna elements. Good beam switching performance is obtained with small gain variation. The achieved figures of merit for the PA component attain an output power saturated level of roughly 5W providing a gain close to 16 dB over a broad frequency range from 18 to 20 GHz. Ongoing work on the use of Lead Niobate-based tunable dielectrics for smart microwave and millimeter-wave antenna system design is also presented in this paper.
1 School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom
2 Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
3 Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut f&ür Höchstfrequenztechnik, Berlin, Germany
4 TYRO Aerospace, Garriga, Spain
5 Airbus Defence and Space SAS, Les Mureaux, France
6 Efacec Engenharia e Sistemas S.A., Maia, Portugal
7 Evoleo Technologies Lda, Maia, Portugal
Keywords:
antenna array, GaN, satellite communication, smart antenna, beam-switching, Lead Niobate
Copyright © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IET.
Full version in pdf-format.