On the 24th May, there was kick-off meeting of the project PHOAM: Photonic Assisted Multibeam Phased Array Antenna, with the participation of the European Space Agency (ESA), SINUTA (Prime contractor), Instituto de Telecomunicações (Technical Coordination) and PICadvanced.
PHOAM is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) with support from PT Space and ANACOM.
The main objective is to develop a multi-beam antenna, capable of handling Ka-band signals to communicate with low orbit satellites (LEO) constellations.
The main innovation aspect of the proposed antenna is the novel hybrid architecture that uses, for the first time, phased array antennas, discrete RF beamforming, photonic beamforming, and digital true-time delay beamforming. The photonic beamforming will be possible through a novel photonic integrated processor to be developed by the consortium. This novel antenna promises unprecedented bandwidth and low power consumption, which will help to bridge the digital divide by bringing broadband to everyone, everywhere.
Learn more about the project: