RF on Flex tile for L Band phased arrays

Abstract

Passive and active L Band phased array tiles based on RF on Flex interconnect have been successfully demonstrated. The tile is a modular building block for light weight, high performance phased arrays to be used in space based radar applications. Each tile contains 6 radiating elements with a maximum radiated power per element of ~ 2 W. Each tile includes two beamformers and two T/R modules per radiating element so that any transmit polarization may be formed and both V and H polarizations may be received. Each tile weighs 0.41 kg (3.9 kg/m²). In order to minimize production cost the tile is designed to be fabricated on an industry standard Printed Circuit Board assembly line and the T/R modules are packaged as Plastic Encapsulated Modules (PEMs). A thirty tile build has demonstrated high yield and a path to meeting the tile high volume production cost goal of $50K/m².