Paramium Technologies, a provider of satellite ground stations as a service (GSaaS), develops innovative designs for satellite communication antennas by taking inspiration from the ancient art of origami.
The growing number of satellites in space is creating an increasingly big problem as they can’t send all their data back to Earth. By the end of 2024, there were 28,318 active satellites in orbit, but there aren’t enough ground stations to receive all their data. As a result, valuable information worth millions of dollars is being lost because it’s too expensive to receive this data on Earth. At the same time, the cost of launching satellites has dropped by 10 times in the last decade and will continue to fall with SpaceX’s Starship. Experts predict there will be over 100,000 satellites by 2030. To solve this issue, Paramium is mass-producing a large network of ground antennas to improve satellite connectivity.
Paramium’s self-serve Ground Station as a Service (GSaaS) platform can alleviate the shortage of ground stations. Satellite companies can use Paramium’s antenna network to receive data from their satellites. The key to Paramium’s ability to mass-produce enough antennas for worldwide coverage is their patented Magnum™ antenna design, which is inspired by principles of origami.
The Magnum™ antenna is built using folded sheet metal components, making production and installation both cost-effective and fast. To support large-scale manufacturing, Paramium has partnered with Hastings HVAC, a Nebraska-based sheet metal fabrication company that has also invested in Paramium. Hastings will laser-cut flat metal pieces, which will then be folded according to Paramium’s patented origami-inspired design.
In addition, the Magnum™ design also incorporates a Japanese-origin mass production strategy called Poka-yoke. In this manufacturing concept, the geometry of parts is such that it is impossible to assemble them incorrectly, thus preventing assembly mistakes. The Magnum antenna design uses this approach in its folded parts such that each connection point can only fit the correct part. This design simplifies and speeds up the assembly process - an approach widely used in the automotive industry. Paramium also uses patented technology to create high-precision reflector panels on an adjustable computerized mold. These proprietary technologies allow Paramium to produce high-quality antennas quickly and affordably, helping meet the growing demand for satellite data transmission.
Paramium has been chosen to showcase this innovative solution at the Satellite 2025 conference in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2025. They will also present at Destination Startup in Boulder, Colorado, on March 13, 2025.
Dr. Christian Davila-Peralta and Dr. Justin Hyatt co-founded Paramium in 2019 with the goal of mass-producing radio antenna reflectors. They licensed patents for the technology they developed during their research together at the University of Arizona. In 2024, Paramium expanded its business to offer satellite earth stations as a service. This growth attracted strong investor interest, leading to a $1 million Seed A funding round at the end of 2024.
“We saw the huge need to get data down from LEO satellites,” said Hyatt, Paramium’s CEO. “Other GSaaS companies were trying to sell time on assortments of legacy antennas. We knew there was a better way.” Thus, they ended up designing their own ground station optimized for mass production and multi-user shared infrastructure. Dr. Davila-Peralta, the company’s CTO, explained, “We started with the foundation of modern performance requirements. Each ground station needs to serve dozens of satellites every day. That pointed directly to multiband antennas with a digital back end.”
Paramium’s Magnum™ antennas provide a standard user experience across the entire network. “Booking time on our platform is as easy as scheduling a meeting on Zoom,” Hyatt said. “Imagine you wanted to make a phone call as you were driving across town, and you needed to schedule in advance which cell towers you would connect with along the way. That’s how satcom is now. Paramium is taking us to the future with constant, uninterrupted communication.”
Click here to learn more about Paramium's ground stations as a service (GSaaS) platform.
