{"projectId":4325,"project":{"projectId":4325,"title":"Development of Reconfigurable Ka-Band Antenna Array","startDate":"2011-08-01","startYear":2011,"startMonth":8,"endDate":"2015-07-31","endYear":2015,"endMonth":7,"programId":69,"program":{"ableToSelect":false,"acronym":"STRG","isActive":true,"description":"<p> \tThe Space Technology Research Grants Program will accelerate the development of &quot;push&quot; technologies to support the future space science and exploration needs of NASA, other government agencies and the commercial space sector. Innovative efforts with high risk and high payoff will be encouraged. 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Often performance drives engineering designs, but for NASA, there is an inherent tradeoff between performance and weight. As would be expected, weight and size limitations impact system functionality and performance. Also, in many recent NASA missions, there is a need for communication system reconfiguration after launch. These limitations have prompted a desire for multibeam and wideband antennas that can realize reconfigurable functionality. Reflector and lens antennas are typically used for satellites. However, phased arrays offer many advantages over reflectors and lenses. They provide higher aperture efficiency and power amplification at the element level. Also, they have no spillover loss, no aperture blockage, and better reliability. However, they have not been adapted as much due to their limited bandwidth and technology costs for reconfiguration. Recent developments in wave slow down techniques using metamaterials have now allowed for very thin conformal antenna apertures that are concurrently broadband (as much as 10:1). This overcomes the ensuing conundrum of narrowband printed antenna technologies. Also, low cost multibeam approaches and software reconfigurable feeds are now possible to enable low cost conformal Ka band arrays.  Here, I am proposing a novel wideband metamaterial technology that relies on our group's experience and recent developments on wideband small arrays and multibeam technologies. The proposed metamaterial array technology is based on the novel concept of emulating in-plane anisotropy to introduce many more design degrees of freedom to achieve significant wave slow down and wide bandwidth. As part of this fellowship, I will adapt these new metamaterial concepts to develop wideband (>4:1 bandwidth) Ka-band arrays. The array will also include low cost software-defined RF electronics for beam synthesis and reconfiguration. ","benefits":"Phased arrays offer many advantages over the reflector and lens antennas typically used on satellites.  They provide higher aperture efficiency and power amplification at the element level. Also, they have no spillover loss, no aperture blockage, and better reliability. However, they have not been adapted as much due to their limited bandwidth and technology costs for reconfiguration.  This metamaterial array technology could achieve significant wave slow down and wide bandwidth, adressing limitations associated with phased arrays.","releaseStatus":"Released","status":"Completed","viewCount":749,"destinationType":["Foundational_Knowledge"],"trlBegin":2,"trlCurrent":3,"trlEnd":3,"lastUpdated":"02/13/26","favorited":false,"detailedFunding":false,"projectContacts":[{"contactId":150652,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Felix","lastName":"Miranda","fullName":"Felix A Miranda","fullNameInverted":"Miranda, Felix A","middleInitial":"A","email":"felix.a.miranda@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","projectContactRole":"Project_Manager","projectContactId":559842,"projectId":4325,"programContactRolePretty":"","projectContactRolePretty":"Project Manager"},{"contactId":235906,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"John","lastName":"Volakis","fullName":"John Volakis","fullNameInverted":"Volakis, John","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","projectContactRole":"Principal_Investigator","projectContactId":559843,"projectId":4325,"programContactRolePretty":"","projectContactRolePretty":"Principal Investigator"},{"contactId":355852,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Nick","lastName":"Host","fullName":"Nick Host","fullNameInverted":"Host, Nick","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","projectContactRole":"Co_Investigator","projectContactId":559844,"projectId":4325,"programContactRolePretty":"","projectContactRolePretty":"Co-Investigator"}],"programContacts":[{"contactId":321177,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Matthew","lastName":"Deans","fullName":"Matthew C Deans","fullNameInverted":"Deans, Matthew C","middleInitial":"C","email":"matthew.c.deans-1@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Director","programContactId":267,"programId":69,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Director","projectContactRolePretty":""},{"contactId":183514,"canUserEdit":false,"firstName":"Hung","lastName":"Nguyen","fullName":"Hung D Nguyen","fullNameInverted":"Nguyen, Hung D","middleInitial":"D","email":"hung.d.nguyen@nasa.gov","receiveEmail":"Subscribed_User","programContactRole":"Program_Manager","programContactId":162,"programId":69,"programContactRolePretty":"Program Manager","projectContactRolePretty":""}],"leadOrganization":{"organizationId":3996,"organizationName":"Ohio State University-Main Campus","acronym":"OSU","organizationType":"Academia","city":"Columbus","stateTerritoryId":23,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"OH","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Ohio","stateTerritoryId":23,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"43210","murepUnitId":204796,"academicDegreeType":"Public_4_year","projectId":4325,"projectOrganizationId":585815,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"Academia"},"otherOrganizations":[{"organizationId":3996,"organizationName":"Ohio State University-Main Campus","acronym":"OSU","organizationType":"Academia","city":"Columbus","stateTerritoryId":23,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"OH","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Ohio","stateTerritoryId":23,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"43210","murepUnitId":204796,"academicDegreeType":"Public_4_year","projectId":4325,"projectOrganizationId":585815,"organizationRole":"Lead_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Lead Organization","organizationTypePretty":"Academia"},{"organizationId":4860,"organizationName":"Glenn Research Center","acronym":"GRC","organizationType":"NASA_Center","city":"Cleveland","stateTerritoryId":23,"stateTerritory":{"abbreviation":"OH","country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"name":"Ohio","stateTerritoryId":23,"isTerritory":false},"country":{"abbreviation":"US","countryId":236,"name":"United States"},"countryId":236,"zipCode":"44135","projectId":4325,"projectOrganizationId":585816,"organizationRole":"Supporting_Organization","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"Supporting Organization","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Center"}],"primaryTx":{"taxonomyNodeId":11136,"taxonomyRootId":8817,"parentNodeId":11130,"code":"TX05.2.6","title":"Innovative Antennas","description":"Flight and ground antennas provide more-innovative and more-effective apertures than those currently in operation and provide high efficiency but lower mass-per-unit area and accurate pointing.","exampleTechnologies":"Deployable antennas; 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The program is composed of two competitively awarded components.</p> ","parentProgram":{"ableToSelect":false,"isActive":true,"description":"Catalyst is a portfolio of early stage programs that specialize in different innovation constituencies and mechanisms to push the state of the art in aerospace technology development","programId":92327,"responsibleMd":{"canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":""},"title":"Catalyst","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"Catalyst"},"parentProgramId":92327,"programId":69,"responsibleMd":{"organizationId":4875,"organizationName":"Space Technology Mission Directorate","acronym":"STMD","organizationType":"NASA_Mission_Directorate","canUserEdit":false,"locationEdit":false,"organizationRolePretty":"","organizationTypePretty":"NASA Mission Directorate"},"responsibleMdOffice":4875,"stockImageFileId":36658,"title":"Space Technology Research Grants","manageGaps":false,"acronymOrTitle":"STRG"},"description":" NASA requires small and lightweight communication and remote sensing systems to accomplish its missions. 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A goal was to make phased arrays simpler and cost competitive for satellite communications. Accordingly, we employed a traveling wave array (TWA) using a single feedline whose propagation constant was controlled via a single, small mechanical movement of a dielectric plunger to enable scanning. The dielectric plunger is positioned within a parallel plate waveguide (PPW) transmission line (TL) that feeds the TWA. By adjusting the position of the dielectric plunger within the transmission line, the feedline achieved a propagation constant within the range of 1 ≤ 푘ef ≤ 2.1, corresponding to scan angles of −32.6° ≤ 휃 ≤ 34.2° and using an element spacing of 푑푑 = 0.65휆휆0. That is, beam steering was achieved using a single feed and one mechanical movement (for any size array), and thus, avoiding the usual and very costly phase shifters.  Four different 20 element arrays were designed, demonstrating stable realized gain across −25° ≤ 휃 ≤ 25°. Additionally, a proof of concept array was fabricated and measured. The measured and simulated results were in agreement, validating the concept. The resulting dissertation was defended on 11-19-2014. 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