Future robotic and human space exploration vehicles will be producing large quantities of data that needs transmitted between vehicles and to the ground stations. However, these vehicles will be…

This is a $125,000.00 firm-fixed-price purchase order awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to Engi-Mat Co., a small business manufacturer of advanced materials. The contract is for the development of a high-performance Ka-band electrically steered antenna with phased array architecture using Engi-Mat's proprietary barium strontium titanate (BST) based tunable dielectric materials. This technology is intended to address the size, weight, and power constraints of future robotic and human space exploration vehicles while meeting their increased data transmission requirements. The contract was set aside for small businesses and is part of NASA's Electronically Steered Antenna for Advanced RF Communications major program.

Future robotic and human space exploration vehicles will be producing large quantities of data that needs transmitted between vehicles and to the ground stations. However, these vehicles will be tightly constrained in size, weight, and power sources. Traditional methods of using single function elements will not be able to meet these requirements. Therefore, advanced technologies that utilize state-of-the-art materials, packaging, and devices and components are urgently needed to minimize the size, weight, and power usage of the RF communication systems. Ngimat proposes to develop high performance KA-band electrically steered antenna with phased array architectures using ngimat's proprietary BST based tunable dielectric materials. BST's unique voltage tunable characteristics make them promising candidates for critical microwave components in phased array communications and radar systems such as varactors, tunable filters, and phase shifters. The ability to efficiently change the RF complex impedance with low electrical loss could significantly impact future communication systems for both government and civilian applications. Successful maturation of tunable materials together with associated microwave and component circuit design techniques resulting from this effort could reduce the cost while simultaneously improving the performance of future RF communication systems. The resultant antenna will be capable of simultaneous full-duplex multiple beam operations.