Great Momentum In Technology, Financing and Commercialization

Transcription

1 14 Phasor on Target with New Flat Panel Phased Array Antenna... Great Momentum In Technology, Financing and Commercialization After nearly five years of development, Phasor's disruptive, new Electronically Steered Antenna (ESA) is in advanced stages of commercialization and is expected to soon announce that it has closed its "B Round of financing. Developed by a talented team of dedicated engineers in a "Skunk Works" like environment, the satellite industry will be excited to discover that the ESAs capabilities far exceed any competitive antenna, whether that is a traditional mechanically-steered parabolic dish or a newer flat panel antenna technology, making it especially suitable for high speed broadband applications at sea, on land and in the air. Make no mistake, the antenna is highly disruptive to the conventional steered dish market, setting a new standard for reliability, ease of installation and adaptability to coming LEO constellations. Here is the very latest update on this emerging technology from David Helfgott, Phasor CEO. SMW: : I understand the company has made considerable progress in securing investors and that Phasor has raised a significant amount of capital. Is the company now fully financed through commercial product roll out? DJH: Phasor has had strong support from its core

2 15 investors for several years, and we recently completed a significant incremental funding round, which we plan to announce soon. This funding allows Phasor to complete commercialization of its first electronically steered antenna products, and to further develop next generation technologies which will enable powerful enterprise-grade, mobile broadband services for commercial passenger vehicles and the satellite operators and mobile network services providers who serve them. SMW: Phasor has recently made some major advances on both the technical and business side. It is our understanding that the multi-year development program is nearing completion and that commercial introduction is likely with the next 9 to 12 months. Can you bring us up to date on your progress? DJH: Phasor has now progressed to TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 7 and is engaged in TRL 8, Beta Test activities for its core technology and initial products. We expect to release Ku-band maritime and land-mobile ESA (electronically steerable antenna) product variants in 2018 following successful field trials. After that, we plan to release our initial aero market products.. SMW: Given that the potential markets for the ESA are maritime, aero, land, which markets have priority and when do you expect commercial introduction in each? DTH: All three of these commercial mobility use-cases are important to Phasor? and our technology will be deployed in each. The core technology is identical for maritime, aero and land-mobile, but the final terminal configuration and the licensing and certification processes for each can vary quite a bit. So we are responding to both the market demand and the process of commercialization. SMW: From the beginning, the Phasor antenna has been positioned as a high capacity B-to-B product. Given the falling prices of microprocessors, is it possible that the price of a Phasor antenna could fall low enough in volume to be suitable for mass market, consumer applications? DJH: Phasor?s technology is robust, powerful,?enterprise-grade? and intended for commercial mobility markets? principally passenger vehicles broadband access, and increasingly for aggregated operational telematics data-links. The same ESA aperture will interoperate between the several kinds of satellite constellation architectures? GEO, MEO and LEO. The software-defined beam forming provides capability that is impossible today with mechanically-steered antennas. Even with all this functionality and capability, Phasor?s technology is

3 16 based on industry standard processes and materials and these are subject to volume economic effects? so yes. The greater the volume the lower the cost. It is therefore conceivable that Phasor will find a welcome market in large volume, standardized products. SMW: I understand that the initial product will be a Ku-Band antenna. What are your priorities in terms of developing antennas that address Ka-Band and other frequencies? DJH: Our principal priority is to launch outstanding ESA products in Ku band. However, our technology is readily translated to other frequencies and we are already in discussions and initial design reviews round a Ka version. We have also been asked to develop our ESA platform in C and X band, but clearly Ka is where our next opportunity lies, following Ku product launch. SMW: Reliability is a key advantage of the Phasor Flat Panel ESA. It can be said that the modular infrastructure of the antenna allows it to keep function?albeit at a lower capacity? even if individual patch elements or a complete panel fails. Is Phasor Aero Antenna this feature unique to the Phasor unit? DJH: We believe so. The system architecture is modular, and each radiating?element? works cooperatively with its peers to create a coherent, aggregated communications beam, in a basic configuration called a?core module.? Core modules are then combined to create electronically steered antenna apertures of various sizes. This combination occurs at?baseband?(unlike traditional phased arrays where it occurs at RF frequencies) which means the often large RF losses are removed from our system? a very efficient technique. This also means that any kind of failure, at the element or even the module level is localized and allows the remaining aperture to continue to perform. The key attributes of our patented system design include scalability, redundancy, modularity and performance, all which contribute to reliability. SMW: It is our understanding that a key objective of the company is to integrate send and receive functionality into each modular antenna panel, (Core Module). What advantages are inherent in integrating both Tx and Rx functions on a single panel and has this objective been achieved, or when will it be achieved?

4 17 DJH: Phasor has multiple products in development, all based on the same core technology. Phasor?s initial product design includes a separate Tx and Rx aperture, combined to create an integrated Tx/Rx array. We have specific customers who have asked for both Rx-only and Tx-only systems, as well as combined Tx +Rx systems. We have additionally developed an overlaid Tx/Rx array-based product architecture, which provides the same connectivity and functionality, using half the space. This is ideal for broadband connectivity to smaller vehicles like business aircraft, smaller boats, and intercity buses, and will open new mobile broadband markets for services providers. Our overlaid products will follow shortly after the separate Tx + Rx arrays. SMW: Given the fact that the propensity by end users to upload video and photos is now creating significant demand on the up-link, how is your performance on the TX side enabling you penetrate markets such as cruise? DJH: Phasor?s Tx performance has always been very strong. Our ability to dynamically create extremely well controlled and accurate beam patterns, while on the move, means that we can ensure we always meet the regulatory masks. This, therefore, enables our ESA to transmit a significant amount of power unlike other electronically steered antennas. Phasor?s technology has the BUC embedded within each element and so, not only is this cost effective, but it also means that because these are individually each low power, the overall reliability is extremely good. SMW: What about shipping, storage and installation? Can you compare the costs of installing managing these issues with a conventional antenna? How much can be saved using?just on time? delivery and ease of installation? DJH: Operational and logistical considerations have been included at the beginning of our system design. While we have not yet gone to full commercial production, our technology is superior to bulky, heavy, mechanically-steered antenna solutions. The benefits of a lighter weight, smaller, flatter, more reliable and modular system are self-evident. The logistics, and maintenance & repair chain will be greatly improved and simplified. SMW: While flat panel ESAs offer significant advantages in terms of new market development, reliability, aesthetics and serviceability, their efficiency declines the further they are from a position directly under the satellite. Solutions to this appear to be increasing power,

5 18 deploying the antenna in a curved or conformal configuration, compensating by increasing the size of the antenna or mounting the antenna on a platform that swivels, along the antenna to be turned toward the satellite at low latitudes. What approach will Phasor take toward this problem? DJH? As with any flat, electronically steerable antenna, performance does drop off with?scan angle? however this can be greatly mitigated through the placement and mounting angle of the ESAs to minimize the time spent at lower elevation angles. This, in combination with the ability to combine multiple ESAs mounted around the vessel, can create a system that delivers significant performances in all locations. The ability to combine multiple ESAs also solves the problem of?blockages:? line-of-sight obstructions that can disrupt service of traditional antennas that are placed near or next to taller parts of the vessel for example. We believe that mounting the electronically-steered antenna on a mechanically-steered platform that swivels negates several principal benefits of a high-performance ESAs.? low profile, aesthetics, and solid-state reliability. A conformal or curved antenna that fits along the curvature of the vehicle (like an aircraft fuselage or high-speed train car) is an elegant solution, which presents more antenna to the low angle GEO satellite Conformal Antenna Configuration than a simply flat antenna; (of course, this issue is completely mitigated with the advent of wide-band LEO constellations). SMW: LEO constellations may soon be available. How will their introduction affect the use of flat panel antennas? As look angles to these satellites will always be favorable regardless of a user?s latitude, can we consider Phasor/flat panel antennas as a long term, obsolescence proof solution in mobility markets? DJH: That is exactly right, these new wide band LEO constellations are really where ESAs will come into their own? significantly out-performing traditional mechanically steered antennas. Not only will they perform more reliably, but Phasor?s antenna will have instantaneous beam switching and multiple independent beams enabling seamless coverage when switching between satellites within a constellation or being able to provide interoperability between GEOs & LEOs. Phasor?s antenna will have multiple independent beams enabling seamless coverage when switching between satellites within a constellation or providing inter-operability between GEOs & LEOs. SMW: Dave: Thanks for bringing us up to date on Phasor's progress. We'll be following your roll out closely. Thank you for you time. A.G.