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Comment by dotnet00 | Hacker News Reader

As far as I know, the terminals were mainly so expensive due to the large phased array antenna. I wonder if these cost reductions are mainly from managing to produce them cheaply and if that might be valuable as a commoditized phased array for other applications.

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Parts count has gone way down. Gen 1 terminals used something like 80 beamformer ICs with 8 frontend ICs for each one. 700+ chips on the board.

Gen 3 runs 16 beamformers with 2 frontends each.

The F-22's APG-77 phased array radar became cheaper when one key component became a commercial off the shelf part for wifi routers.

I'm curious, can you share the name of that particular key component?

No idea unfortunately. I think I read this a long time ago possibly from a Bill Sweetman report.

Thanks for the clue, apparently it's the GaAs MMIC technology according to the ChatGPT-4 [1]. I've should have figured it out in the first place due to my previous research work of Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology that now become the successor to GaAs technology due to high power Radar requirements. I suppose this is where ChatGPT become really handy for research, as Google is extremely useful for search.

Similarly with LIDAR, the autonomous vehicles demand has made the LIDAR sensor now become very affordable for the masses.

[1] ChatGPT-4 response:

"The key component of the F-22's APG-77 phased array radar that was made cheaper by Wi-Fi technologies, according to Bill Sweetman's reports, is the Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) technology. This technology was significantly reduced in cost due to its widespread use in commercial Wi-Fi systems, allowing the defense industry to leverage economies of scale and reduce the overall cost of producing the radar system for the F-22 Raptor."

Holy shit that's insane.

I concur, initially I've tried to search using Google but to no avail. Then I prompted ChatGPT-4 and voila the answers [1].

[1] Prompt: "What is the key component of F-22's APG-77 phased array radar that made cheaper by wifi according sweetman report"

Does it give the same answer if you try multiple times with new sessions?

I also imagine they can work with cheaper antennas now that they have many more satellites on orbit.

I would be surprised if the older, higher costs didn't include broker fees for scarce ICs in the supply shortage. I'm sure they've gone through a few revisions but part of that cost drop is simply price of components dropping.

The array itself no, because the size of the elements is a function of the transmit frequency.

The driver IC's, perhaps.

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