Description
Priority 2: Priority 2 activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.
Objective: Design, manufacture and test of a High Power Amplifier (HPA) module for active phased array payloads with European semiconductor technology in Ku-band.
Targeted Improvements: 4 dB improvement in RF output power and 10% higher DC/RF efficiency compared to European state-of-the-art. As a consequence it will be possible to significantly increase the number of beams and total EIRP generated.
Several past activities funded by ESA consider Active Arrays as a good antenna solution to achieve high on board flexibility for coverage and also for power and bandwidth allocation to different beams. The main problem of this architecture is related to the low DC to RF conversion efficiency of HPAs, particularly in higher frequency bands. This has a big impact on DC power consumption as well as on dissipation of power, which eventually limits the total number of beams and EIRP that can be effectively accommodated on board.
By using European commercial GaN technologies that are space qualifiable within 2 years, the development of such HPA modules is now feasible since Output powers of 20W have been recently achieved in Ku-Band MMIC HPAs using GaN processes with 40% and 30% DC/RF efficiency.
The Activity shall be also focused on the development of new manufacturing and packaging techniques for size and mass reduction, considering improvements in mechanical and thermal management.
The work logic shall be as follows (not limited to):
- Market and Literature survey on state-of-the art MMIC HPAs in Ku- Band.
- Literature survey on advanced packaging techniques for highly integrated modules.
- Analyse the feasibility of using advance packaging techniques for the HPA module design.
- Design manufacture and test of two highly integrated HPA module in Ku- Band.
- Second iteration design-manufacture-test (where needed) of each HPA module.
- Asses the feasibility of each HPA module for their use in actual active phase array antennas with emphasis on the thermal management.