Advancing the State of SATCOM User Terminals Across the K/Ka and Ku Bands
Mohsen Sazegar of the Kymeta team recently presented two invited technical papers at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation. Underpinning both papers is the thesis that to meet the ever-growing global demand for uninterrupted high-throughput connectivity, radical technological advancements must be made in user terminals to ensure they’re designed for mobility and strong performance to meet today’s evolving SATCOM needs.
The first paper, “Ku-Band SATCOM User Terminal With Complete Beam Steering Using a Shared Aperture Metasurface for Full-Duplex Operation” co-authored by Mohsen and Kymeta colleagues Ibrahim Nassar, Chris Eylander, Amin Momeni, and Ryan Stevenson, presents a triple band metasurface antenna and discusses the myriad technical advantages of holographic beam forming metasurface antennas, including reduced complexity and hardware.
Specifically, the paper explains how the metasurface antenna covers the entire Ku Rx and Tx bands in a single aperture, including simultaneous operation of both transmit and receive bands, allowing for full-duplex functionality without compromising the antenna’s radiation efficiency. It also outlines the liquid crystal flat panel display technology that can deliver large size panels required for high gain SATCOM antennas at high volumes and low cost. Finally, it illustrates an exploded view of the user terminal, which due to its compact size and low-power operation can provide satellite communications on the move and is ideal for small mobile platforms.
The second paper, “K/Ka-Band Full-Duplex Satcom ESA Using a Varactor-Based Metasurface Aperture,” co-authored by Mohsen, Amin Momeni, and Ryan Stevenson, outlines the advantages of a shared aperture full-duplex ESA using a varactor-based metasurface. Due to its low profile, high efficiency, low power consumption and wide beam scanning range, this technology is particularly well-suited for commercial and military Ka-band mobile SATCOM use cases. The paper presents the latest advances in manufacturing techniques and processes across metasurface materials and flat panel display technology.
Mohsen’s presentations at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation underscore Kymeta’s commitment to innovative satellite communications solutions. By leveraging advanced technologies such as holographic beam forming metasurface antennas and varactor-based metasurface apertures, Kymeta user terminals offer enhanced performance and mobility. Click here to learn more about Kymeta’s core technology.
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