Chen, Z. N., Qing, X., Tang, X., Liu, W. E. I., & Xu, R. (2022). Phased Array Metantennas for Satellite Communications. IEEE Communications Magazine, 60(1), 46–50. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcom.001.2100538
Abstract:
To optimize the reception and transmission in
real-time changing links, phased array antennas
have been increasingly investigated and applied
in satellite applications. The phased array antenna
technology intelligently combines multiple individual
antenna elements to improve system performance
in terms of gain enhancement, interference
cancellation, radiation patterns formation, and radiation
beam steering over a wide coverage.
This article updates the latest development of
metamaterial-based antenna (metantenna) technology
in phased array antennas. With metamaterials’
unique electromagnetic properties, which
have never been found in nature, metantenna
technology has been widely used to miniaturize
the antenna element, broaden the bandwidth
of the array, suppress the inter-element mutual
coupling to eliminate scanning blindness, reduce
the number of phase shifters, lower side-lobe levels,
and so on. Recently, metantennas have been
applied in the phased array technology to further
boost the performance and reduce the volume
and active device cost of the phased arrays in satellite
systems. Two types of phased array metantennas
are exemplified. One is the planar phased
array metantenna operating at Ka-band with
broadband circularly polarized operation over a
wide scanning range. The other one is a hybrid
architecture of a flat metalens and a circularly
polarized phased array at X-band. The proposed
low-profile architecture uses fewer phase shifters
to lower the system complexity and cost.
With performance enhancement and cost
reduction, the phased array metantennas are
ready to embrace more promising applications in
next-generation satellite and radar systems as well
as 5G Advanced and future 6G wireless communication
systems.
License type:
Publisher Copyright
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the A*STAR - Industry Alignment Fund — Pre-Positioning Programme
Grant Reference no. : A1897a0040