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This study presents the first monolithically integrated full‐duplex front‐end for K/Ka satellite communication phased arrays. A 0.25 μm SiGe:C BiCMOS process was used to develop the integrated circuit. The receive and transmit channels are united into a common port through a novel duplexer. For each RF channel, the bias currents, the active channel...
Citations
... The power amplifier (PA), a critical component in the satellite-based communication system, is primarily employed for amplifying and transmitting high-power RF signals. Furthermore, its performance and stability directly influence the overall effectiveness of the communication system [12][13][14][15][16]. Therefore, the design and implementation of PAs evince immense significance and practical value. ...
This paper presents a groundbreaking Ku-band 20W RF front-end power amplifier (PA), designed to address numerous challenges encountered by satellite communication systems, including those pertaining to stability, linearity, cost, and size. The manuscript commences with an exhaustive discussion of system design and operational principles, emphasizing the intricacies of low-noise amplification, and incorporating key considerations such as noise factors, stability analysis, gain, and gain flatness. Subsequently, an in-depth study is conducted on various components of the RF chain, including the pre-amplification module, driver-amplification module, and final-stage amplification module. The holistic design extends to the inclusion of the display and control unit, featuring the power-control module, monitoring module, and overall layout design of the PA. It is meticulously tailored to meet the specific demands of satellite communication. Following this, a thorough exploration of electromagnetic simulation and measurement results ensues, providing validation for the precision and reliability of the proposed design. Finally, the feasibility of that design is substantiated through systematic system design, prototype production, and exhaustive experimental testing. It is noteworthy that, in the space-simulation environmental test, emphasis is placed on the excellent performance of the Star Ku-band PA within the 13.75GHz to 14.5GHz frequency range. Detailed power scan measurements reveal a P 1dB of 43dBm, maintaining output power flatness < ± 0.5dBm across the entire frequency and temperature spectrum. Third-order intermodulation scan measurements indicate a third-order intermodulation of ≤ -23dBc. Detailed results of power monitoring demonstrate a range from +18dBm to +54dBm. Scans of spurious suppression and harmonic suppression, meanwhile, show that the PA evinces spurious suppression ≤ -65dBc and harmonic suppression ≤ -60dBc. Rigorous phase-scan measurements exhibit a phase-shift adjustment range of 0° to 360°, with a step of 5.625°, and a phase-shift accuracy of 0.5dB. Detailed data from gain-scan measurements show a gain-adjustment range of 0dB to 30dB, with a gain flatness of ± 0.5dB. Attenuation error is ≤ 1%. These test parameters perfectly align with the practical application requirements of the technical specifications. When compared to existing Ku-band PAs, our design reflects a deeper consideration of specific requirements in satellite communication, ensuring its outstanding performance and uniqueness. This PA features good stability, high linearity, low cost, and compact modularity, ensuring continuous and stable power output. These features position the proposed system as a leader within the market. Successful orbital deployment not only validates its operational stability; it also makes a significant contribution to the advancement of China’s satellite PA technology, generating positive socio-economic benefits.
... A combined Rx/Tx aperture usually features switches for alternating Rx and Tx operation [4,21,22]. On the other hand, [23] presents a beamformer chip capable of full-duplex Rx/Tx with a noise figure of 3.2 dB. This, however, requires radiators with four inputs, two for Rx and two for Tx. ...
This contribution deals with a frontend for interleaved receive (Rx)-/transmit (Tx)-integrated phased arrays at K-/Ka-band. The circuit is realized in printed circuit board technology and feeds dual-band Rx/Tx- and single-band Tx-antenna elements. The dual-band element feed is composed of a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) diplexer with low insertion loss, a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a bandpass filter, and several passive transitions. The compression properties of the LNA are identified through two-tone measurements. The results dictate the maximum allowable output power of the power amplifier. The single band feed consists of a SIW with several transitions. Simulation and measurement results of the individual components are presented. The frontend is assembled and measured. It exhibits an Rx noise figure of 2 dB, a Tx insertion loss of ~ 2.9 dB, and an Rx/Tx-isolation of 70 dB. The setup represents the unit cell of a full array and thus complies with the required half-wave spacing at both Rx and Tx.
... There is an increasing demand for RF front end to possess much more potential characteristics for application in modern wireless communication systems, such as compact structure, low cost, high efficiency, multiple functions, and so on. It is well known that both antennas and filters are two key components in the RF front end as they play important roles in whole communication systems [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. If the antenna and filter can be integrated into one module, which possesses not only the radiation characteristics but also the filtering function, the extra matching network between these two components can be removed and the footprint of whole system will be reduced efficiently. ...
In this article, a wideband filtering-radiating Yagi dipole antenna with the coplanar stripline (CPS) excitation form is investigated, designed, and fabricated. By introducing an open-circuited half-wavelength resonator between the CPS structure and dipole, the gain selectivity has been improved and the operating bandwidth is simultaneously enhanced. Then, the intrinsic filtering-radiating performance of Yagi antenna is studied. By implementing a reflector on initial structure, it is observed that two radiation nulls appear at both lower and upper gain passband edges, respectively. Moreover, in order to improve the selectivity in the upper stopband, a pair of U-shaped resonators are employed and coupled to CPS directly. As such, the antenna design is finally completed with expected characteristics. To verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme, a filtering Yagi antenna prototype with a wide bandwidth covering from 3.64 GHz to 4.38 GHz is designed, fabricated, and measured. Both simulated and measured results are found to be in good agreement, thus demonstrating that the presented antenna has the performances of high frequency selectivity and stable in-band gain.
A planar shared-aperture beam-scanning array antenna for simultaneous transmitting and receiving (STAR) satellite communication is proposed. The antenna operates in dual working bands with right-handed circular polarization (RHCP) from 17.7 to 21.2 GHz and left-handed circular polarization (LHCP) from 27.5 to 31.0 GHz. For the K-/Ka-band shared-aperture beam-scanning array antenna, the main challenge is to simultaneously achieve a wide beam scanning range, low profile and high cross-band isolation. Compared to high-profile end-fire duplexing or filtering antennas, planar laminated antennas have a stronger coupling between two elements operated at different frequency bands. In this design, two embedded two-stage filters are proposed and integrated into the dual-band feeders. The minimum spacing between the elements is 1/4 wavelength, and both in-band wideband impedance matching and cross-band filtering are performed simultaneously. Firstly, two square lattices with a 45° rotation angle between them and a non-stacked topology are employed in the design of uniform arrays for both bands. This design is better suited for this filtering array. Secondly, to improve CP performance during the beam scanning, the Ka-band induced current on the K-band radiator should be suppressed. The rotary feed phase and the segmented patch are used to suppress the induced current and produce the reverse induced current in the small and large beam scanning area respectively. Finally, the equivalent circuits and chain matrices are used to design the filtering feeders. As a result, the dual cross-band isolations increase to 38 dB and 41 dB. The total profile is less than 3.2 mm, much smaller than the existing K-/Ka-band filtering antenna’s profile of 10 mm, and the proposed design also has a wide operating bandwidth and a large beam scanning range of ±60°.
This article presents a
$K$
-band high gain monopulse variable inclination continuous transverse stub (VICTS) antenna for satellite-aided vehicular communications. The radiating part is divided into four regions and fed by an air-filled single-layer E-plane waveguide comparator cascaded with two groups of mirror-symmetric multiple-port excited linear source generators (LSGs). Two waveguide delay lines are carefully designed to compensate the phase difference between the adjacent radiating regions in the desired frequency band. Combined with the nonuniform slow-wave structure underneath the radiating slots, excitation signal with uniform phase distribution can be obtained, and then, the sum and difference patterns can be produced by using the comparator. For verification, a prototype operating at
$K$
-band is designed and demonstrated. The experimental results show that the reflection coefficients for the sum and difference patterns are all lower than −10 dB within the frequency range of 19–21 GHz. The gain drop of the sum pattern is less than 5.7 dB within the beam scanning range of −1° to −62° at 21 GHz, while the amplitude imbalance and null depth of difference patterns are less than 4.5 and −20.6 dB, respectively. The proposed antenna can be a potential candidate for the future Internet of Vehicles.
