Phased arrays are heavy and usually flat; spacecraft surfaces are curved and mass-starved. US11658398B1, granted to NASA on May 23, 2023, attacks both problems at once, claiming a "lightweight conformal phased array antenna using aerogel substrate."
The CPC is dense with antenna and fabrication codes: H01Q 1/286 / 1/40 (structural antenna details and dielectric substrates), H01Q 3/30 (phase steering), H01Q 21/0075 / 21/065 (array arrangements), and a run of H05K printed-circuit-fabrication codes. The H05K presence signals this is as much a manufacturing claim as an antenna claim.
The mechanism is the substrate. Aerogel is extraordinarily low-density and a good dielectric, so using it as the array's base material slashes mass while providing the electrical properties the antenna needs. "Conformal" means the array can wrap a curved structure — a fuselage, a satellite body — rather than demanding a flat panel, which frees up the system designer and improves how the antenna integrates with the vehicle.
For mass-constrained platforms, this is a meaningful enabler. The antenna is the architecture, and an antenna that weighs almost nothing and conforms to existing structure changes what that architecture can afford.
As government IP, this kind of NASA grant often becomes available for licensing, which matters for the smallsat and aerospace community. The usual caveat applies — the claim covers NASA's specific aerogel-substrate conformal implementation, not conformal arrays or aerogel use in general. But it is a clean example of materials science quietly unlocking antenna design, and of NASA seeding IP that commercial players can build on.