A 1536-Element Ku-Band Dual-Polarized Transmit Phased Array for SATCOM Application

This paper presents a 48×32 elements dual-polarized transmit (Tx) phased array for Ku-band (13.5-14.5GHz) satellite communication (SATCOM). In order to achieve a low profile, the array uses a multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) with the antenna elements on the front side, the silicon Tx beamformer chips surface-mounted on the back side, and the beamformers' control and power supply routings are also integrated into the PCB. Each beamformer has 8 channels connected to the vertical and horizontal polarization of the surrounding 4 antenna elements, and the array can be circular or linear polarization by changing the phase of the channels. The total Tx phased array consists of 12 subarrays of 8×16 dual-polarized antenna elements, which is designed to reduce the cost of production. The antenna elements are arranged in a regular rectangle with a spacing of 10.5 mm, allowing a scanning range of ±60° in the operating band. The effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the Tx array is higher than 82.2 dBm at 13.5-14.5 GHz, which allows for a good realization of communications between ground equipment and satellites.