The perfect antenna is one the customer uses, never sees, and never worries about, said Carl Novello, CTO of NXT Communications. “‘Perfect’ means very different things to each one of those” users — retail consumers, military, first responders, aircraft cabin crew. “Perfect is difficult. Even more difficult is getting low cost.”
Ryan Jennings of Ball Aerospace said the antenna “needs to be simple to manufacture, simple to calibrate and optimize. When put in the field, it needs to be simple for people to use it and configure.” Paul Klassen, VP of Engineering for Kymeta Corporation, said his company is focused on solving problems for the U.S. Department of Defense today, with consumers to follow: “We are focused on solving the problems of the U.S. Department of Defense today. The consumer will come in the future, like in the automotive space.”
Explore the Show Daily 2021 Wrap Up Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
On design constraints, Klassen said: “Some of the design constraints that we see are really around the compatibility. The L-band, the interfaces, the modem — they drive a lot of costs in the overall design of the terminal.” Novello stressed thinking in systems: “When we think of design constraints, we think of actually designing with a system in mind. That means integration with other stuff, like connectors.” Dedi David Haziza of NexTenna added: “There are basic constraints that we have to deal with, from the element to the connector integration and all the way down to the modem, because they are all interconnected.”
On interoperability, Novello noted there is no dominant market share leader in the antenna space, creating financial incentives to cooperate: “There is no incumbency in our area, there is no market share leader out there. So, there is a financial incentive to play nice.” He concluded with wonder at the achievement: “You are taking a physically insignificant piece of real estate on the ground, on planet Earth, and communicating to something in space. Wow.” VS
