A 1024-Element Ku-Band SATCOM Phased-Array Transmitter With 39.2-dBW EIRP and ± 53° Beam Scanning

A planar, 1024-elements, Ku-band transmitter phased-array with embedded driver for low-earth-orbit (LEO) SATCOM application has been designed in this paper. The array elements are spaced λ/2 apart at 14.25 GHz in the x and y directions. This array consists of eight 128-element subarrays, each of which has 1 beamformer chip with 8 channels and 2 amplifier chips assembled on a printed circuit board (PCB). The output P1dB per channel is 28 dBm at 14 GHz. The phased array can scan to ± 53° in the azimuth plane with a 3-dB beamwidth of 2.9° and 39.2 dBW EIRP at broadside. The overall size of 68.2 × 20 cm²with high EIRP makes it suitable for integration with receiver end on Ku-band LEO satellite communication system.