[awelkie]

Starlink doesn't get enough credit for their phased arrays terminals, I think. They've managed to make a performant antenna for 10 to 100 time less cost than the competition. Without that, the whole system wouldn't be such a success. This article goes into some details. It's the first truly mass produced RF phased array, and the fact that they've shown it's possible will have some big impacts on certain fields (SATCOM obviously, mobile networks, etc).

https://lilibots.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-is-starlink-termin...

[beambot]

Maybe it's the first use of phased arrays for consumer satellite data terminals, but I believe phased arrays were mass-produced (and still are) for radar chips -- e.g. in automotive. Ran across this fascinating article on the history:

https://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/20469-automotive-r...

[awelkie]

Good point. To my knowledge most of these radars are MIMO, which are more capable than phased arrays but it's a different architecture. Also these radar systems usually have on the order of 10 antenna elements (although this number is increasing), whereas the starlink terminal has something like 1000 antenna elements, if I remember correctly.

[zeristor]

There was the 'Squarial' from 1990 used by BSB, this was 'just' a receiver though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarial

[throwup238]

They were also produced for WirelessHD enabled TVs in the late 2010s. I.e the SiBeam SB9210 chip

[raducu]

>. for radar chips -- e.g. in automotive.

The hacker in me is dying to know what the starlink antenna could pe re-purposed to do in terms or radar.

Has anobody tried it or at least did the math of what it could do in that regard?

[f_devd]

As long as you can position yourself behind the phase-shifters and the frequency is high enough (usually > 10GHz) it should be fairly easy to do.

[dr_dshiv]

The article refers to starlink as “under construction as of 2021” and references a 2015 interview. It’s a bit outdated.

[Prcmaker]

Doesn't WiFi AC do beam forming?

[preisschild]

Thats MIMO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMO