EHF phased array manpack terminal design

A requirement exists to provide a full duplex, 2.4-kb/s MILSATCOM voice circuits with low probability of intercept and antijam protection to highly mobile tactical users. The authors discuss an EHF manpack terminal design that uses moderate beamwidth antennas to provide this service. The terminal antenna system consists of five transmit/receive pairs of phased array antennas mounted on the faces of a cube. A hybrid inertial motion sensing/antenna step tracking system is used to select the active antenna array and point the selected beam toward the satellite despite the presence of user motion. The recommended terminal design relies on technologies that are currently under development. The realization of a cost-effective implementation is considered feasible within the next five years, but would require continued investment in MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) phased array technology and manufacturing techniques