2010 R&D 100 Winner
NASA Glenn Research Center’s (Cleveland, Ohio) Thin Film Ferroelectric High Resolution Scanning Reflectarray Antenna (HRSRA) for Aerospace Communications is a new antenna concept designed to enable electronically steerable, high data rate communications in support of NASA’s mission needs, as well as non-NASA commercial communications applications. Developed with the Ohio Aerospace Institute, Cleveland, Ohio, the antenna combines the best features of gimbaled parabolic reflectors and scanning phased array antennas to create a low-cost, reliable communications device.
The flat surface with integrated phase shifters and patch radiators is illuminated by a single feed at a virtual focus located a distance from the surface. The modulated signal from the feed passes through the reflect-mode phase shifters and is re-radiated as a focused beam in any preferred direction in the hemisphere in front of the antenna, as in a conventional phased array.
The HRSRA allows for non-mechanical, vibration-free wide angle electronic beam scanning and features highly effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) via quasi-optical beam forming, which eliminates manifold losses. It exhibits an efficiency level between a standard reflector and a MMIC direct radiating array at a cost at least 10 times lower than the MMIC array.
Technology
Aerospace communications antenna
Developers
NASA Glenn Research Center
Ohio Aerospace Institute
Development Team
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| Front row (l-r): Nicholas C. Varaljay, NASA Glenn Research Center, and Frederick W. Van Keuls, Ohio Aerospace Institute. Back Row: Félix A. Miranda, Robert R. Romanofsky, and Elizabeth A. McQuaid , NASA Glenn Research Center |
Thin Film Ferroelectric High Resolution Scanning Reflectarray Antenna (HRSRA) for Aerospace Communications Development Team:
Elizabeth A. McQuaid, NASA Glenn Research Center
Felix A. Miranda, NASA Glenn Research Center
Robert R. Romanofsky, NASA Glenn Research Center
Frederick Van Keuls, Ohio Aerospace Institute
Nicholas C. Varaljay, NASA Glenn Research Center
