Cooling of high power active phased array antenna using axially grooved heat pipe for a space application

An engineering model of a phased array antenna, cooled using axially grooved heat pipes (AGHP) is presented. Solid state power amplifier´s (SSPA) located inside the satellite are wave transmitted to the reflector through waveguides. This integration technique is preferred to minimise electrical losses. However, usually when designing waveguides, minimising antenna losses takes precedence, which leads to an un-optimised design for thermal performance. Because of this situation, a thermal solution has become a challenging problem on this project. With a total heat load of 578 W, it is essential that the waste heat is transferred to the radiator of the satellite which is designed to operate in GEO orbit. This work presents a thermal solution being developed for a satellite phased array antenna that incorporates 4 AGHP´s to carry the heat from the SSPA to the radiator. Thermal design work for the antenna and heat pipes completed for the specific boundary conditions for the application, using Icepack® computational fluid dynamics (CFD) thermal software is presented. It is crucial in this pre-development phase to identify problems which can arise from electronic performance loss or thermal issues in advance, both by theoretical design and ground testing.