Potential NASA Commercial Applications: There are several applications for active mm-wave antenna arrays outside of NASA. NOAA and other government organizations use W-band for instruments with similar frequency capability as what would be required for the NASA Aerosol, Cloud Ecosystem (ACE) mission. Raytheon uses this frequency range for Active Denial, and a more efficient front end could be useful for this type of system. In addition, the Air Force is very interested in satellite communication capability at V-Band, and the proposed effort would have application at these lower frequencies. The DARPA system technology office recently released a broad agency announcement for W-band silicon-based phased arrays. Improved antenna and amplifier efficiency for the front end of these sensors would be achieved using the proposed technology. The dual-polarized microfabricated copper-based antenna apertures with integrated MMICs present enabling capabilities for each of these applications and others using this frequency range.
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