[HN Gopher] Origami-Inspired Phased Arrays Are Reshaping the Fut...
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       Origami-Inspired Phased Arrays Are Reshaping the Future of Antennas
        
       Author : subbdue
       Score  : 110 points
       Date   : 2024-09-04 22:13 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.viksnewsletter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.viksnewsletter.com)
        
       | ranger_danger wrote:
       | Cool stuff, this kind of phased array antenna is also how modern
       | radars work without moving parts.
        
         | pbmonster wrote:
         | Did you read the article? This type of phased array has a
         | rather large number of moving parts, including a number of
         | folding GHz transmission lines. Personally, I'm very skeptic
         | whether we'll ever see this design outside of bespoke high
         | performance applications.
         | 
         | The fact that this is very cool doesn't change the huge
         | advantage classic planar phased arrays have by literally having
         | zero moving parts.
        
           | mynameisvlad wrote:
           | Which part of the array is movable, exactly?
           | 
           | The article did not describe a movable array. There are
           | folds, sure, but they seem entirely static. And the only time
           | it was even mentioned is when deploying it via satellites
           | (unfolding the array into a particular configuration).
        
             | b3orn wrote:
             | To quote the section "Eggbox Phased Array":
             | 
             | > This unit cell, like an origami design, may be folded
             | across either axis or laid flat, allowing you to physically
             | change the direction of radiation. Because the phased array
             | antenna on each face can steer the beam further, the
             | antenna can be utilized to generate almost any radiation
             | pattern using a combination of physical folding and
             | electronic beam steering.
             | 
             | To me "physically change the direction of radiation" is
             | rather explicit that the antenna isn't static.
        
               | regularfry wrote:
               | Also:
               | 
               | > When you see a foldable circuit running at 28 GHz, the
               | first thing you think about is the foldable
               | interconnect's RF performance and stability over repeated
               | folding...The result is a stable hinge design that does
               | maintains low loss over the 180deg range of folding, and
               | shows no degradation up to 300 folds.
               | 
               | This is very clearly intended to be physically
               | reconfigurable.
        
           | vikramskr wrote:
           | Newsletter author here-
           | 
           | Agree moving parts suck. But they are interesting in fold up,
           | deploy and unfurl in mini satellite applications perhaps
        
       | jpm_sd wrote:
       | This is extremely academic. Reinventing flex circuits on a 3D
       | printer??
       | 
       | AFAICT they built exactly one "unit cell" and there's no way that
       | SPI interconnect scales to an array
        
       | wafflemaker wrote:
       | Expected pictures of origami shaped antennas, but found a
       | scientific article instead. It's clickbait. ;)
        
         | vikramskr wrote:
         | Newsletter author here- i literally made my 9 year old make an
         | origami fortune teller for the title cover image. Tried to
         | deliver on the promise! :)
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-05 23:01 UTC)