A 2.95mW/element Ka-band CMOS Phased-Array Receiver Utilizing On-Chip Distributed Radiation Sensors in Low-Earth-Orbit Small Satellite Constellation

Abstract

Small satellite technology has the potential to further extend the current satellite constellation in low-earth orbit (LEO) by realizing a wider coverage and more robust networks all over the world. Compared with conventional satellites, small satellites can drastically reduce launch costs and increase the number of satellites in LEO. However, small satellites face the more severe issues in terms of power consumption and radiation tolerance due to the limited size of solar panels and more than ten times thinner radiation shield than conventional sizeable satellites. In addition, since the small satellites cannot have the large-size antenna installed on the main body, a deployable membrane is attached to the main body for the large phased-array antenna. In that case, the radiation degradation by total ionizing dose (TID) becomes non-uniform due to the shadowing by the main body. The non-uniform gain dropping in the phased-array causes a degradation of beam-pattern performance. Figure 19.3.1 shows an estimated result for the conventional design regarding the non-uniform gain degradation, resulting in 3.1dB main-lobe degradation for one year. Thus, a phased-array receiver with on-chip distributed TID sensors is proposed in this work to solve the non-uniform gain degradation. Compared with the conventional received-signal-strength-indicator-based gain detector, the proposed on-chip distributed TID sensors detect the gain variations between chips and the gain variations inside the chip with radiation hardness features. Thus, the influence on the beampattern can be mitigated by the compensation feedback and distributed TID sensors.