A Scalable Deployable High Gain Reflectarray

Antenna - DaHGR

Presented by: P. Keith Kelly, PhD

MMA Design LLC

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 MMA Overview

• Facilities in Boulder County Colorado

– 10,000 SF facility
– Cleanroom / Flight Lab
– R&D Lab
– Machine Shop
• Business Areas
– Solar Array Systems De-orbit System
– Deployable Antennas FalconSat-7 CubeSat
– Deployable Apertures and Structures
• Products
– HaWK High Performance Solar Arrays
– DaHGR high gain compact antenna
– CubeSat Systems HaWK CubeSat Solar Array
– dragNET De-orbit Modules

E-HaWK 72W
MMA Boulder Facility 2
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 Outline

• DaHGR Overview
• What is a Reflectarray?
• Reflectarray Advantages
• DaHGR Performance
• Frequency range and Bandwidth
• Mission Concepts
• DaHGR Heritage/Risk
• Conclusions

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 DaHGR Overview

• MMA Design has been developing the DaHGR system under IR&D –
multiple patents pending
– Our RF teams has heritage and world class expertise in
reflectarray antennas
– MMA has world class deployable structures technologies and
expertise
– Three DaHGR 1m to 3m antenna programs started in first quarter
2016
• DaHGR is a product that competes with a parabolic wire mesh
reflector high gain antenna
– Small stowed volume
– Similar area mass with feed included
– Fewer parts -1/3rd the parts
– Lower cost -1/3 the cost
• Uses thin film reflectarray antenna and membrane technologies
– High TRL
– Leverages MMA’s TRL-9 membrane deployment experience
• TRL-9 dragNET De-Orbit system and launch restraints
• TRL-8 FalconSat-7 diffractive membrane deployment
• Flight heritage standoff boom composite tapes DaHGR
– Multiple frequencies up to Ka-band
• Printed reflectarray technology reduces cost and enables >3m2
apertures on CubeSats

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 Deployable High Gain Reflectarray
Antenna P- DaHGR

Reflectarray Blanket
Assembly

Deployment Structure
Elements

Vehicle Mounted Feed

Stowage Volume
1.5U/m2

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 What is a Reflectarray?

• First described in the 1960’s Reflectarray

• 1990’s-2000’s inflatable • Collimation over narrow
bandwidth (limited by
reflectarrays for space electrical size, radiator
properties, number of
layers)
• Single or multiple flat
surfaces conducive to
small stowed volume

Parabolic Reflector
• Collimation over infinite
bandwidth (limited by
surface roughness)
• Precise parabolic profile
requires many physical
control features limiting
stowed volume/size
Reflectarrays support any polarization and high power 6
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 Thin Membrane Reflectarray
Advantages
• Cost
– Less complex mechanical
deployment system
– Lower parts count
– Less touch labor to assemble
NG AstroMesh
• Small stowed size Harris Mesh
– 1 m diameter aperture in a Reflector
0.1m X 0.1m X 0.12m (1U)
volume
• Meeting RMS tolerances with flat
membrane surfaces is inherently
less difficult than mesh/parabola
systems
– Increasing tension improves
surface RMS
– RMS vs Membrane thickness MMA/USAFA FalconSat-7
and tension
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 DaHGR Mechanical Performance

• Areal Compaction: approximately {0.5 to 1.0}

m2/L
• Mass Density: {1.5 to 1.0} kg/m2 @10m2 to {1.6
to 1.0} kg/m2 @0.78m2
• First mode >1 Hz
• Low CTE structure
• On orbit adjustable feed to reflectarray
geometry
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 Frequency Range and Bandwidth
for Small Sats

• Aperture sizes in development span 0.8 m to 5 m

diameter
• Lower frequency limited by electrical size conducive to
spatial feeding with minimal spillover losses (~D/λ > 10)
– D=5m, λ=0.5m, lowest frequency is 0.6 GHz
– At smaller electrical size, the deployment methods
described support constrained feed antenna
architectures.
• Highest frequency is limited by features controlling
deployed flatness and allowance for Gain and sidelobe
degradation
• Reflectarrays are inherently band width limited

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 Ruze’s Equation for Reflectors

• Active area of research

driven primarily by
<0.3 dB @ X-band
material thickness
(membranes and metal).
• Current photogrammetry
inspections of surfaces
showing better than 35
mil rms.
mils rms • Near term work will
quantify performance at
X-band; we expect Ka
band applications to be
viable

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 < 25 mil RMS

• Initial lab membranes inspected

with photogrammetry

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Folding Test Setup

12

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Far Field Patterns: Frequency 9.6 GHz

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 Photogrammetry

• Photogrammetry Results:
• Unfolded: 0.0323” RMS (Good)
• Folded: 0.0345” RMS (Good)
• Crinkled: 0.0492” RMS (Marginal, but acceptable)

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Histograms of Flatness

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Test Summary

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 Reflectarray Surface Error Loss
Budget

Reflectarray Losses
Surface dissipative 0.1 dB full wave analysis with material parameters
Surface flatness 0.28 dB Ruze's equation for reflectors. 25 mil rms flatness derived from experiment.
Folding (Area Loss) 0.20 dB 56 folds, lam/20 peak distortion, 0.25 inch width
Seams 0 dB assumed negligible, test coupon planned soon to confirm
variations due to phase resolution chosen in artwork plus variations due to
etch and element to ground plane spacing: total is rms of these three
Element phase 0.07 dB values. Ruze's equation for phased arrays.

total 0.7 dB

Folding loss estimate consistent with measurement.

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 Bandwidth Analysis Method

140

120

100
z-axis (inches)

Rn

f
80

60

40

D
20

-100 -50 0 50

x-axis (inches)

Path length variation (Rn) drives bandwidth of the system

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 1.0 dB Bandwidth (DaHGR)

Single Facet Two Facet

Reflectarray Bandwidth
20 40
Reflectarray Bandwidth
0.5 0.5
1 35 1

1.5 1.5

15 f/D 2
0.5
30
f/D 2
0.5
1 1

1.5 25 1.5
2 2

% BW
% BW

10
20

15
5

10

0 5
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

D/ D/

e.g. 4m @ X-band is D/λ=133

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 Mission Concepts

SAR/SATCOM SAR with STAP

Aspect Ratios (H/W)>2 supported

H W

Over the Horizon Comms

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 DaHGR Heritage/Risk

• Combine two high TRL (9

and 7) to produce a high
gain and cost effective
antenna
• The deployment system is
based on the 14m2 Flight
heritage dragNet de-orbit
system 14m2 dragNet De-orbit Module
• Deployable thin film Ka and
X band reflectarrays have
been built and tested by
NASA and its contractors
– They used inflatables to
deploy the array
– The mechanical system in
DaHGR is more robust 1m X Band

3m Ka Band
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 Conclusion

• Compared to conventional parabolic antennas-DaHGR is:

– 1/3 the cost
– 1/5th the volume
– 1/3 the parts

• Reflectarrays enable new/expanded missions for SmallSats:

– Expanded GEO communications
• 2-4x RF aperture
• Expanded “real estate” for secondary payloads
– Enable High resolution SmallSat SAR/SIGINT missions and high capacity
communications platforms
– Launch on ESPA, Minotaur, Pegasus, Taurus, Alasa, etc.

• System TRL-9 expected in next 18-24 months on a CubeSat or other

mission

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