Description
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a W-band/E-band phased array antenna including the passive RF front-end taking advantage of additive and hybrid manufacturing techniques in order to reduce its complexity and mass compared to conventional subtractive techniquesTargeted Improvements: 30% mass reduction, removing screws and assembly interfaces.Description: With the multiplication of broadband communication satellite systems, from LEO to GEO, there is a growing interest in moving user links to even higher frequencies for specific applications with less stringent link budgets, such as aeronautical and inter-satellite links, or feeder links with a higher aggregate capacity. The W-band/E-band is being considered by some operators for future systems. At these frequencies, integration is a major challenge and limitation. Antenna systems, and in particular phased array antennas, could benefit from novel manufacturing techniques, including additive and hybrid techniques, to reduce the overall complexity, removing screws and assembly interfaces, and providing a monolithic (i.e., single-piece part) sub-system. Simple additively manufactured antenna systems (e.g., corrugated horns) operating above 100 GHz have already been launched and there is a growing interest for more advanced additively manufactured RF front-ends, including those for phased arrays and array fed reflector antenna systems. The technology could be of interest for the design of the RF front end in closely-space arrays with wide scanning range on board LEO satellites or focal arrays in reflector-based antenna solutions. The activity shall identify specific W-band/E-band antenna systems that couldbenefit from additive and hybrid manufacturing techniques and passive RF front end designs compatible with current manufacturing capabilities and of interest for future broadband communication satellite systems. The activity shall include a comparative evaluationof promising manufacturing techniques and provide recommendations for a complete antenna product development.