Kavli Affiliate: Ali Hajimiri
| First 5 Authors: Oren S. Mizrahi, Austin Fikes, Alan Truong, Fabian Wiesemüller, Sergio Pellegrino
| Summary:
Large apertures in space are critical for high-power and high-bandwidth
applications spanning wireless power transfer (WPT) and communication, however
progress on this front is stunted by the geometric limitations of rocket
flight. Here, we present a light and flexible 10GHz array, which is composed of
dipole antennas co-cured to a glass-fiber composite. The arrays are designed to
dynamically conform to new shapes and to be flexible enough to fold completely
flat, coil, and pop back up upon deployment. The design was chosen to be
amenable to scalable, automated manufacturing – a requirement for the massive
production necessary for large apertures. Moreover, the arrays passed the
standard gamut of required space-qualification testing: the antennas can
survive mechanical stress, extreme temperatures, high-frequency temperature
cycling, and prolonged stowage in the flattened configuration. The elements
exhibit excellent electromagnetic performance – with a return ratio better than
-10dB over a bandwidth of 1.5GHz and a single lobe half-power beam width of
greater than $110^circ$ suitable for broad range beamforming and with
excellent manufacturing consistency. Moreover, its mechanical durability
vis-a-vis extreme temperatures and protracted stowage lends itself to demanding
space applications. This lightweight and scalable array is equipped to serve a
host of new space-based radio-frequency technologies and applications which
leverage large, stowable and durable array apertures.
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