State the consolidation plainly, because that is the value: a satellite normally needs antennas for two distinct jobs, cross-links to other satellites and a communication link to the ground or users. This grant claims one phased array that does both, and on a spacecraft, eliminating an antenna eliminates mass, power draw, and a failure point.

The grant US11223126B1 (inventor Erik Lier), classified in H01Q 3/2635 (phased-array beam control) with H04B 7/18508, H04B 7/18515, and H04B 7/18523, claims the combined-function array. The mix of antenna-structure and satellite-communications CPC codes is the signature of a filing that spans both the hardware and the link it serves.

“An apparatus includes a cross-link phased array and a communication-link phased array. The cross-link phased array and the communication-link phased array are integrated into a single array. The cross-link phased array and communication-link phased array comprise a multi-beam phased array.”— U.S. Patent No. 11,223,126 source

The description is specific about why the consolidation is worth claiming. The conventional arrangement it replaces is an antenna farm: typically four cross-link reflector antennas distributed around the spacecraft on gimbals, each a single-beam, heavy, high-cost unit with limited pointing flexibility, plus a separate steerable reflector or array for the ground link. The patent's combined antenna is a single, widely scanned phased array mounted on the earth-facing deck, with element spacing of about half a wavelength so it can steer roughly 60 degrees off boresight, far enough to reach neighboring satellites and the ground from one aperture. The dependent claims add the band and the build: the cross-link array operates in Ka-band, around 22.55 to 23.15 GHz, where higher frequency yields narrower, more directive spot beams than the legacy UHF cross-links, and the array can be realized as either a brick configuration of subarrays and antenna boards or a layered tile configuration for lower cost.

The mechanism is shared aperture with managed beams, made possible by digital beamforming. The same array forms multiple Ka-band beams pointed at neighboring satellites for cross-links and beams pointed at the ground for the user link, with the beamforming integrated circuits multiplexing the aperture and steering each beam independently. The description notes the combined array can support on the order of eight simultaneous cross-link beams without gimballing, enabling time and range measurements between satellites, multiple inter-satellite routes for resiliency, and real-time constellation management, capabilities a fixed reflector farm cannot offer. The dependent claims around how that beam sharing and the brick-versus-tile construction are managed are where the engineering moat lives.

This is the same part-count-collapsing instinct visible across the modular-architecture era, where the satellite array architecture grant (US11336029B2) pushed standardized building blocks. Fewer, more capable antennas per spacecraft is a recurring path to cheaper, lighter fleets, and replacing four gimballed reflectors plus a comms dish with one earth-deck array is a concrete instance of it.

The description's most distinctive idea is how the two arrays physically share one aperture: interleaving rather than juxtaposition. The communication-link elements are laid out as a phased array with deliberately unfilled spaces in the lattice, and the cross-link subarrays are then dropped into those vacant positions, so the two functions occupy the same physical face in an interpenetrating pattern. The patent illustrates the ground-link elements as hexagonal to approach full packing efficiency, with the cross-link subarrays nested into the gaps. The dependent claims spell out the build options that follow. A brick configuration assembles the aperture from subarrays of antenna boards mounted normal to the array face, each board carrying its own input filter, low-noise amplifier or solid-state power amplifier, power divider, and beamforming integrated circuits. A tile configuration, offered as the lower-cost path, instead stacks antenna and waveguide-assembly layers on top of electronic board layers parallel to the aperture.

Those beamforming integrated circuits are what make one face serve two roles at once. Because each board can generate and steer multiple beams, the array forms its earth-coverage and ground-navigation beams downward while simultaneously forming up to roughly eight independently steerable Ka-band cross-link beams toward neighboring satellites, all from the shared elements. The description ties the band choice to physics: at Ka-band the half-wavelength element spacing yields narrow, high-directivity spot beams and the wide scan needed to reach other satellites, whereas the legacy UHF cross-links it replaces, near 300 to 400 MHz, are single-beam and far less directive. A planar polarizer layer converts the linearly polarized elements to circular polarization so a ground receiver keeps the link without having to rotate to match the satellite. The consolidation is therefore not merely two antennas bolted into one box; it is one electronically agile, multi-beam aperture that the digital beamformer time-shares between inter-satellite and ground duty.

The operational gains the description claims for the approach go beyond saved mass. A combined array mounted on the earth deck offers roughly a 120-degree field of view, about plus-or-minus 60 degrees off boresight, with fast electronic beam pointing in place of the slow, mechanically gimballed reflectors it replaces, and it supports multiple simultaneous beams for added flexibility. Because the cross-link beams can be steered directly and independently at neighboring satellites, the array enables time and range measurements between satellites, real-time constellation management, and multiple inter-satellite routing paths for resiliency, all of which the digital processing makes possible and none of which a fixed four-reflector farm can match. The patent positions this against a baseline of conventional cross-link antennas that are heavy, costly, single-beam, and limited in where they can point. That a global-positioning-style satellite is named as the target application underlines the stakes: navigation constellations depend on tightly maintained inter-satellite links for timing and orbit determination, exactly the regime where a fast, multi-beam, resilient combined array would pay off most. The dependent claims protecting the brick and tile builds, and the interleaved unfilled-space layout, are the engineering moat that keeps that capability from being trivially copied.

The defense-prime fingerprint is worth noting: a consolidated, robust array that reduces failure points and removes gimbals fits a mission-assurance mindset, the same priority visible in Lockheed's fault-tolerant propulsion work. The patent tells you the company values resilience and integration. Whether the shared aperture matches dedicated antennas on raw performance, the cross-link directivity, the comms-link gain, the thermal load of packing transmit and receive electronics behind one face, is a tradeoff the claim sets up but the flight hardware resolves.