A Dual-Polarized 1024-Element Ku-Band SATCOM Transmit Phased-Array with ±70° Scan and 43.5dBW EIRP

This paper presents a planar, 1024-element, Ku-band SATCOM transmit phased array. It can synthesize any polarization, such as linear, rotated-linear, left-hand and right-hand circular polarizations since it is constructed using dual-polarized antennas and 8-channel silicon beamformers. The 1024-element array is assembled using four 256-element arrays, and is scalable in a 2×N fashion. An antenna spacing of λ/2 at 14.4 GHz is used in an equilateral triangular grid, and results in ±70° beam steering in all planes. Measurements show that the 1024-element array has a 3-dB beamwidth of 3.2° and 3.7° in the principal planes with a cross-polarization (X-pol) level of -34 dB at broadside, and with 42.5 and 43.5dBW EIRP at P1dB and Psat, respectively, per polarization. According to the authors’ knowledge, this work presents a state-of-the-art Ku-band transmit phased-array solution with high EIRP for Ku-band SATCOM mobile terminals.