Phased Array Antenna Development

Scalable Architecture: 4×4 to 16×16 to 80×80 Antenna Sub-Arrays

The Company is investing heavily into the R&D of next generation antenna systems and has aggressive plans to be a disruptive force in the antenna design market. C-COM is in late-stage development of a potentially revolutionary Ka-band, electronically steerable, modular, conformal, flat panel phased array antenna. In cooperation with the University of Waterloo, (CIARS), C-COM is engaged in the design of this unique antenna with the intent of providing low-cost, high-throughput mobility applications over GEO, LEO and MEO satellite constellations for land, airborne and maritime verticals.

The Company has received Government funding for the project and owns all the intellectual properties relating to the design and development of this technology. The Company has already received two patents relating to the design of this new antenna system and additional patents are pending. This project should provide C-COM with new revolutionary patentable Ka-band and higher frequency (5G+/6G) antenna technology.  The antenna is going to be able to track multiple satellites in GEO/LEO and MEO orbits and could also be deployed on spacecraft and other airborne vehicles like HAPS and drones.

• System can have full control over each module
• Can perform electronic beam steering
• Can optimize the beam
• Can electronically scan 360 degrees

• Gain can be increased by adding multiple modules
• Allows for small building blocks which can be used to make any size of antenna;

• Bends to fit various shaped surfaces

• One antenna consists of several thousands’ chips, a few hundred antennas could reach a volume of millions of chips.
• It will be easy to reach “economies of scale”, leading to significant cost savings.
• Applicable to many vertical markets.

Flat Panel Antenna vs Parabolic Under Test

Cars with Phased Array Antennas

• Partners with experience in RF ICs (radio frequency chips), RF systems, chip packaging and PCBs (printed circuit boards).
• Targeting consumer and commercial markets using future 5G and SatComm products.
• These technologies will be the key to improved network capacity, significantly faster downloads, and reductions in ’latency’ also known as lag (i.e. the time between a sender causing a change in a system’s state and its reception by an observer).
• 5G services currently being rolled out in Europe and elsewhere are based on updated 4G systems.
• A host of Low-Earth Orbit Satellite constellations are now in deployment that will leverage ubiquitous coverage between the north and south poles.
• The biggest gains will come from the introduction of new mmWave technologies, which use radio waves of much higher frequencies and shorter wavelengths.
• These technologies are the key to improved network capacity, faster downloads (anywhere from 10 to 100 times) and reductions of up to 10-fold in ‘latency’ (i.e. the time to respond to an instruction or a command).
• Softbank HAPS Mobile Mission Concept: https://www.hapsmobile.com/en/media/

Partners

• C-COM Satellite Systems Inc
• Carleton University
• Skyworks Solutions Canada Inc.
• University of Waterloo
• Eindhoven University of Technology
• NXP Semiconductors Netherlands BV
• Semiconductor Ideas to the Market (ItoM) BV

Countries Involved

• Canada
• Netherlands