Description
Priority 2: Priority 2 activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.
Objective:
This activity aims at the design, manufacture and test of a consumer compact Ka-band Satcom On the Move (SOTM) receiveonly active antenna.
Targeted Improvements:
To demonstrate a solution for a Ka-band receive only active antenna with target price of 200-250 Euro in high volumes.
Description:
Ka-band High Throughput satellites (HTS) have the potential of cost effective content delivery, allowing novel mobile multimedia receive terminals with small unobtrusive antennas. Many attempts have been made towards the manufacturing of electronically scanned antennas (both receive only and transmit & receive) for user terminals, however none of them has led to a truly cost effective solution. However Ka-band HTS could make this happen due to their lower cost of ownership and higher gain.
Silicon technologies are now able to handle microwave signals with reasonable performance up to fairly high frequencies in a very cost effective way in volume production. For a multimedia system, it is foreseen that an electronically scanned antennas will require a size equivalent up to a couple of hundred elements, bringing a low cost solution within reach.
The main effort shall be towards the development of a manufacturing tolerant antenna aperture. The activity includes the development and integration of a dedicated custom-made silicon chip with a minimum size and cost.
The combination of highly integrated silicon devices with automated pick & place and bonding, globetop technology and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) implementation should lead to a very cost effective antenna.
The activity will lead to a complete antenna prototype and is preceded by an ARTES 5.1 system study (finishing 2015) where the antenna requirements are defined.
The work logic will cover the following tasks:
- Preliminary design of antenna based on “design to cost” approach.
- Derivation of requirements on sub-elements.
- Design, manufacturing and test of the single chip Ka-band front-end.
- Assembly and test of a prototype antenna.
- Conclusions and way forward.
Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news "Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes".