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UK-based Satixfy is unveiling its world’s first Electronically Steered Multi-Beam Array antenna at the SmallSat Symposium being held in Mountain View this week. The 256 element Ku-band antenna, developed for IoT and mobility applications is being demonstrated in an Antenna Micro Test Range which will show its multi-beam capabilities, antenna patterns and other performance parameters.
The SmallSat Symposium gives the company a great opportunity to showcase its new system as electronically steered, phased array antenna systems will hold the key to unlocking the potential of the small satellite constellations currently under development. These antennas are capable of tracking multiple satellites, enabling them to continuously transfer high data throughputs for imaging and communications.
The ESMA antenna can serve both as a stand-alone IoT terminal or a building block for a larger sized antenna and is currently available in 11-12 GHz receive and 13.75-14.5 GHz transmit frequencies. SatixFy is in the final stages of developing a complete terminal with an integrated SatixFy modem based on its ASIC bringing complete acquisition and tracking capabilities.
“We are proud to bring this unique and powerful antenna to the market in such a short time,” said Yoel Gat, CEO of SatixFy group. “We have developed a 256 element building block that can scale to very large arrays with large bandwidth without significant degradation. This antenna is a part of our complete terminal supporting multi-beams with our own modems and control of hardware and software. We are currently demonstrating our antennas to interested customers and a demo on a moving car is just weeks away.”
SatixFy’s antenna uses in-house developed chips – Prime and Beat. Prime is a Digital Beam Former ASIC, employing True Time Delay technology for 32 antenna elements, capable of processing over 2 Tbps of data. Beat is a Ku-band RFIC including separate up and down converters and LNA/SSPA for any polarization for 4 antenna elements. The antenna is capable of simultaneously pointing, tracking and managing multiple beams at multiple polarizations. Using digital beam forming technology allows the antenna to handle wide bandwidth using a large number of antenna elements and without beam squint. Due to its unique digital features, nulls can be directed towards specific interferers.
