C-COM Satellite Systems Inc. (TSXV: CMI) has been granted U.S. patent No. 10,014,563 for their invention of a low cost, low power and low insertion, loss tunable, phase shifter technology.

Ka-band Phased Array Panel. Image is courtesy of C-COM.

This is the first patent C-COM has been granted and comes as a result of the firm's ongoing research and development of a new Electronically Steerable Ka-band Phased Array Antenna project, which is being developed in partnership with the University of Waterloo under the guidance of Dr. Safieddin (Ali) Safavi-Naeini, director of the Centre for Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems (CIARS), and with the assistance from the Ontario Centers for Excellence (OCE) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

This unique low-cost phase shifter is based on an electrically tunable structure using a high dielectric constant material which requires very little power to activate and allows for a fast change of phase with minimal loss over the entire Ka-band frequency range and beyond.

Executive Comments

Dr. Safieddin Safavi-Naeini said that the research team is using this new technology to develop its first fully passive phased array antenna made of 4X4 intelligent modules, which will be tested early next yea. This opens the way to electronically steerable mobile antennas for commercial and personal device applications, which are now under lab development.