New ThinKom antenna design offers flexible installation options
ThinKom Solutions has developed a new product variant of its VICTS aero satellite communication antennas enabling more flexible installation choices and allowing for smaller distributed and embedded phased-array applications.
The new product variant, which targets government and military beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) satellite communication markets, integrates the VICTS antenna, antenna control unit (ACU) and power-supply (PS) electronics into a single low-profile small-footprint package.
This eliminates the need for a separate line-replaceable unit (LRU) for the ACU/PS.
Further, the characteristics of the VICTS phased array fully eliminate the need for other bulky and power-consuming LRUs, such as power-conditioning units, heat-exchanger units and external RF/power/cooling manifolds.
The incorporation of the ACU into the base of the antenna does not result in any increase in mounting footprint and maintains the antenna’s highly favored low-profile characteristics.
An added benefit of the new product variant is enabling the transmit and receive antennas to be co-located or alternatively mounted in remotely separated platform locations.
ThinKom has begun limited low-rate production of the new VICTS antenna product for a U.S. government customer. Initial units are currently going through integration, with formal qualification scheduled to start later in 2021.