A 17.7–20.2-GHz 1024-Element K-Band SATCOM Phased-Array Receiver With 8.1-dB/K G/T, ±70° Beam Scanning, and High Transmit Isolation

This article presents a wideband scalable 17.7–20.2-GHz 1024-element $K$ -band satellite communication (SATCOM) receive (Rx) phased array with reconfigurable polarization. The phased array uses silicon Rx beamformer (BF) chips and silicon low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) and is able to receive either linear, rotated linear, circular clockwise, or anticlockwise polarization. It demonstrates a measured 3.47° half-power beamwidth (HPBW), more than 25-dB cross-polar discrimination (XPD), and +8.1-dB/K gain-to-noise (G/T) per polarization, and has more than 80-dB Tx-band isolation. The phased array is able to scan to ±70° in all planes without grating lobes and $\cos ^{1-1.2}(\theta)$ scan loss. The array aperture measures 22.4 cm $\times22.4$ cm. To our knowledge, this is the largest single printed circuit board (PCB) SATCOM $K$ -band phased-array receiver to date with the highest G/T and represents the highest level of integration at millimeter waves.

I. Introduction

There has been an increased interest in global high-speed internet connectivity, especially in low-density areas (poorly served). Traditional Internet service providers (ISPs) could not justify their financial interest in serving those areas, and for users on a plane or ship, satellite communication (SATCOM) Internet is the only solution available. This has led to a new space race by commercial companies to launch their space-based broadband connectivity with SATCOM systems such as Starlink, OneWeb, and Kuiper [1], [3] with hopes of tapping this potentially lucrative market.