Last year, the Kymeta flat, electronically-steered satellite antenna was attracting attention. This week another company entered the market for flat phased array antennas. Phasor Solutions announced For the first time in history, an affordable high gain phased array antenna system establishes live satellite communications. The Phasor Solutions antenna is only one-inch thick and, rather than metamaterials, uses thousands of static, electronically self-steerable microwave integrated semiconductors.
The company claims the gain of its antenna was “shown to be equivalent to traditionally very expensive phased array antennas” at prices comparable to conventional parabolic dishes. The system uses no mechanical or moving parts, offering greater reliability at “a cost competitive with far less capable conventional motor-driven parabolic reflector antennas.” If a higher G/T is needed, interlocking panels can be combined to provide higher gain.
On Monday, Phasor Solutions conducted its first test, receiving live data streams from Intelsat 905 in the 11 GHz band on a Phasor low-profile antenna array at the company’s R&D facility. The gain of the array was “equivalent to that of a conventional parabolic reflector with a similar aperture.”
Phasor Solutions said designs were currently being implemented for X, Ku, and Ka satellite bands. The antenna may also be useful for applications such as weather radar where a highly directional steerable antenna is needed.
No prices were mentioned, but given the interest in satellite communications from moving platforms it should attract a lot of interest. I wonder if the cost will be low enough to make it practical for SNG applications.
