Description
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a 2W W-band high power amplifier with at least 25% power added efficiency for active antenna arrays to be employed in future on-board gateway applications for very high data throughput satellite communications in geostationary orbit.
Targeted Improvements: Enabling a European source of W-Band HPA technology to achieve2W output power with 25% power added efficiency.
Description:
Communication satellite systems are challenged to provide very highthroughput at low cost per bit. High throughput satellite systems are now moving towards Q/V band due to the throughput demand growth year on year. Availability of spectrum at W-band could benefit future generations of very high throughput satellite systems. Active antennas allow the possibility to have scalable system in terms of transmitted output power and number of simultaneously availablebeams and enable a gradual gateway ground system deployment.
The high level of integration combined with a low power per element insuch systems require the use of efficient solid-state High Power Amplifier (HPA) delivering an output power in the order of 2W. Recent advances of European semiconductor technologies (i.e. 100 nm GaN and 70 nm GaAs) are paving the way for efficiency and power improvements in W-band similar to what can be achieved at lower frequencies. However, at present, HPA technology does not exist in Europe that is able to achieve 2W output power at W-band. The aim of this activity is to design, develop and test a European MicrowaveMonolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) 2W HPA for W-band downlinks (71 - 76 GHz) with at least 25% power added efficiency. This includes selection of a suitable architecture, topology and design strategy to achieve the required RF performance with low loss interfaces.
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