A Low-Profile, Planar, Power-Efficient 2D Beam-Steering Antenna Technology

The paper explains a recently demonstrated 2D beam-steering antenna technology and its potential to develop a low-cost communication-on-the-move (COTM) terminal antenna. A low-cost COTM antenna is critical for receiving TV and internet via existing geostationary and upcoming low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. The new beam-steering technology is based on near-field phase transformation and its working is verified by a prototype design reported recently. Performance indicators of the prototype are compared here with some commercially available COTM terminal antennas. A fully passive design, low-profile, low power requirements, and simple design configuration give the new steering antenna a competitive advantage over existing COTM terminal antennas from KYMETA and ThinKom.