Application of high-thermal-conductivity diamond wafer for space phased array antenna

Satellite Ka active phased array antenna ( hereinafter referred to as ' antenna ' ) is the most critical terminal equipment on the satellite, which has the characteristics of high performance, high device integration and high heat flux density. However, due to the non-sealed structure of the satellites,satellite antennas are difficult to dissipate heat compared with ground phased arrays, which generally use convection to dissipate heat. Many application cases in this area show that the thermal control of satellite phased array antennas has suffered substantially.Diamond, the substance with the closest arrangement of atoms in nature, has the advantages of a high thermal conductivity and strong adaptability to the space environment. Furthermore, it exhibits low mass loss in a vacuum and produces no condensable volatiles.Thus, it is an ideal material for aerospace applications.

The batch application of high thermal conductivity diamond in the thermal management of inter-satellite link phased array antenna is introduced. Firstly, diamond is prepared by DC arc plasma chemical vapor deposition. The product size, thermal conductivity, accuracy and application scale meet the engineering requirements. The diamond was developed by the direct-current arc-plasma chemical vapor deposition method. The product size, thermal conductivity, precision, and application scale all met the engineering requirements. The high-precision assembly of the diamond and the structural frame enabled the efficient heat collection and transfer from the distributed point heat sources of multiple transmit/receive (T/R) modules. Verified on the ground, the thermal matching design between the diamond and the metal frame exhibited an outstanding heat dissipation performance. After four satellites using the diamonds were launched, the flight data showed good antenna thermal control, with temperature gradients of the T/R modules less than 2.2°C, further verifying the rationality and effectiveness of using high-thermal-conductivity diamonds in the thermal design and implementation of antennas.

CSMH focuses on the research and production of diamond wafers. At present, it has diamond wafers, diamond heat sinks, GaN on diamond, AlN on diamond and other products. Among them, high-power semiconductor lasers packaged by diamond heat sinks have been used in optical communications. In the fields of laser diodes, power transistors, and electronic packaging materials, it can provide customers with diamond thermal management solutions.