A Power-Efficient K-Band Circular Polarized 256-Element CMOS Phased-Array Transmitter With Coupler-End Structure for LEO Satellite Terminal

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 2026 Open access

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Authors: Xiaolin Wang, Dongwon You, Xi Fu, Takeshi Ota, Michihiro Ide, Sena Kato, Jill C. Mayeda, Makoto Higaki, Jumpei Sudo, Hiroshi Takizawa, Masashi Shirakura, Takashi Tomura
+4 more Hiroyuki Sakai, Kazuaki Kunihiro, Kenichi Okada, Atsushi Shirane
DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2026.3677432
Cited by: 1
References: 30

Abstract

This article presents a 256-element CMOS active phased-array transmitter (TX) that works at 19 GHz for low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite applications. This work proposes a 90° coupler-end structure for circular polarization (CP) wave generation, which features low power consumption and enables dual-CP waves emitting in two directions. In addition, this work employs two calibration techniques to improve cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) in single-CP and dual-CP modes. The power consumption of the proposed structure is 9.4 W at 56-dBm average effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), which is 40% lower than the state-of-the-art. It consumes 17.8 W at 64.7-dBm maximum EIRP. The beam-steering ability of this work can achieve ±65° with a sidelobe level

Fields of Study & Subjects

Antenna Design and Optimization Satellite Communication Systems Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology

Publication details

Journal / source
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Volume
61
Issue
5
Pages
1791–1803
Publication date
31 March 2026