Alcan Systems

ALCAN Systems GmbH is a telecommunications company based in Darmstadt, Germany.[1] The company is focusing on developing a low-cost smart antenna system for cellular and satellite communication.[2]

ALCAN Systems GmbH
TypeGmbH
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded2016
Founder
  • Onur H. Karabey (CEO)
  • Esat M. Sibay (CFO)
  • A. Burak Olcen (CPO)
  • Rolf Jakoby
HeadquartersDarmstadt, Germany
Websitewww.alcansystems.com

ALCAN Systems plans to produce smart antennas which are flat, thin and able to steer their beam electronically without any moving parts. This allows mounting them inconspicuously on moving vehicles (e.g. cars, trains, airplanes, ships) to track different types of satellites (GEO, MEO & LEO) as well as 5G cellular networks. ALCAN’s technology is based on liquid crystal (LC) based phased-arrays that are capable of operating in the millimeter and microwave band of the RF spectrum.[2]

History

ALCAN Systems’ technology is based on original research initiated at the Institute for Microwave Engineering and Photonics (IMP) at Technische Universität Darmstadt. Prof. Rolf Jakoby, director of the IMP[3] and later co-founder of ALCAN Systems, started his research on liquid crystal in radio-frequency applications in 1999.[4] He is considered the father of LC RF applications.

Onur H. Karabey joined Jakoby’s research team as a research assistant and started to work on his PhD thesis in 2009. Dr. Karabey finished his PhD research in 2012 and published his results under the name “Electronic Beam Steering and Polarization Agile Planar Antennas in Liquid Crystal Technology” in 2014.[5]

In 2014 ALCAN, which stands for “Adaptive Liquid Crystal Antenna”, started as a research project at TU Darmstadt. Seed funding of €650,000 for the project was provided by the EXIST funding program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.[6]

In 2016 the project team spun out from the university and became an independent company. ALCAN Systems GmbH was founded by Onur H. Karabey, A. Burak Olcen, Esat M. Sibay and Rolf Jakoby.[1]

At the end of 2016 ALCAN raised €7.5 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was made by a consortium consisting of Merck, SES and SPC.[7][8][9]

Patented technology

ALCAN’s beam steering capability is implemented using a liquid crystal layer inside a phased-array antenna. The liquid crystal is controlled by an electric field which changes the direction of the received or transmitted beam without the antenna physically turning at all, so that there are no moving parts.[10]

The antennas will consist of separate receiving and transmitting apertures operating at Ku or Ka band. The switching time of the antenna between two satellites will be under 50ms, which enables the antenna to meet the requirements of MEO and LEO constellation satellites.[2] In 2018 ALCAN successfully field tested the world’s first liquid crystal based phased array antenna for satellite communication.[11]

Partnerships

Partnership with SES

In April 2018 ALCAN was announced as a technical partner of SES Networks. ALCAN will develop an antenna for SES’s new O3b mPOWER satellites.[12]

Business model

ALCAN’s focus is to develop antennas based on requirements provided by satellite operators and service providers. ALCAN is targeting long-term a price range of under $1.000 for the consumer segment and under $10.000 for the enterprise segment. These targets can be achieved by using existing LCD production lines to produce the required liquid crystal phase shifter panels that go into the antenna.

Furthermore, ALCAN plans to produce smaller consumer antennas for land mobile, maritime and home broadband market that will develop due to the start of LEO/MEO satellites and 5G roll out.[2]

References
  1. "ALCAN SYSTEMS GMBH, DARMSTADT". NORTH DATA.
  2. Gottlieb, Alan (September 2018). "On the Road to Low Cost, Mass Produced Phased Array Antennas". Gottlieb's Satellite Mobility World.
  3. "Rolf Jakoby". TU Darmstadt.
  4. Jakoby, Rolf. "Publikationen Fachgebiet Mikrowellentechnik". TU Darmstadt.
  5. Karabey, Onur (2014). Electronic Beam Steering and Polarization Agile Planar Antennas in Liquid Crystal Technology. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-01424-1.
  6. "Startups mit EXIST-Forschungstransfer". TU Darmstadt.
  7. Preu, Achim (2018). "Unternehmen im Gespräch: Alcan Systems GmbH in Darmstadt". Echo.
  8. "Smart Antennas from Alcan Systems to Empower SES Network's O3b mPOWER". Satnews.
  9. "ALCAN, a German Smart Antenna Start-up, Raises EUR 7.5 million to Manufacture Flat Panel Phased Array Antennas". M-Ventures. 18 August 2017.
  10. Goelden; Gaebler; Goebel; Manabe; Mueller; Jakoby (18 June 2009). "Tunable liquid crystal phase shifter for microwave frequencies". Electronics Letters. 45 (13): 686. doi:10.1049/el.2009.1168.
  11. "ALCAN successfully completes world's first liquid crystal based phased array antenna field test for satellite communication". ALCAN Systems. 16 October 2018.
  12. "SES Networks Announces Partnerships for Groundbreaking O3b mPOWER Customer Edge Terminals". SES. 8 March 2018.
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