Low-cost UHF phased array system architecture for small satellite ground stations

Abstract

The space industry has shifted its focus to the development of low-cost satellites and large satellite constellations. Notably, most nano-satellites in low Earth orbit operate at UHF (P-band) frequencies to leverage the use of low-cost commercial off-the-shelf electronics. Such constellations would benefit from the rapid steering of multiple beams offered by a phased array antenna (PAA) ground station (GS). The cost of such systems, however, is not conducive to the low-cost philosophy of the satellites. While several universities have identified the need for a low-cost UHF PAA GS, no feasible design or prototype has yet been developed that is suitable for low-cost applications involving PAAs with a large number of elements. This paper proposes and demonstrates a subarray-digital architecture with a novel two-stage analog beamforming segment to optimize resource usage within the PAA, by allowing for the dynamic reconfiguration of the number of required digital ports. It further leverages several cost reduction techniques to design a modular and scalable transmit/receive module and ancillary geodesic dome PAA. An operational prototype is constructed and used to validate and characterize the implemented design. This successfully reduces the costs of a PAA GS while retaining the associated performance benefits.