Packaged W-Band Antenna With Integrated Feed

XCom Wireless is a developer of RF MEMS relays and micromachined microwave circuits, high-performance components that have been identified as critical technologies for the next generation of defense and commercial electronics. The XCom Wireless processfor MEMS-based mm-wave circuitry provides a direct alternative to solid-state devices so communications and radar equipment manufacturers can easily upgrade to this technology, saving weight, space, power, and money. The proposed program isto design aspace-capable W-band antenna suitable for future SATCOM transmit and receive applications. The design will incorporate the antenna into a W-band package architecture already in development at XCom, employing hybrid MEMS sub-system and micromachinedinterconnect technologies supported by NASA JPL. This provides a process and experiment jump-start to this antenna design program, and prepares for antenna array fabrication and refinement in the Phase II effort. Hybrid assembly of micromachined antennaelements with mm-wave circuitry and RF MEMS actuators promises low-cost and rapid manufacturing potential for high-performance defense needs, and access to robust XCom encapsulation techniques and temperature-tolerant designs enables improved survivabilityrequired for space operation. The direct benefits to the Department of Defense from supporting this effort include the analysis and extension of a novel W-band antenna and feed architecture that can incorporate RF MEMS and other micromachined components.The leveraging of XCom Wireless MEMS expertise with a NASA JPL W-Band interconnect and subsystem design program allows for the development of compact, low-cost, arrayable, space-capable antenna technologies for SATCOM applications. The backgroundinterconnect design and package manufacturing technologies are already in development for multiple government agencies and commercial product programs. The package and antenna technologies to be analyzed in this program are well-suited to the needs ofcompact mm-wave front-end subsystems, and the individual elements are specifically designed to meet military and satellite requirements. The benefit to the civilian mm-wave industry is significant, in that the market for high performance W-band componentsin automotive and fixed broadband systems is limited only by the staggering cost of the alternative technologies the XCom devices will replace. The aerospace communications industry, radar community, and defense wireless system developers have beenidentified as the first adopters of this technology, with micromachined W-Band MEMS-enabled system sales expected to grow to over $30 million in 2005. Consumer markets for W-Band MEMS-enabled systems include fixed broadband equipment and automotivetelematics and radar systems, and can be expected to reach $200 million by 2006.