Within ESA’s Eurostar Neo Partnership Project, RUAG Space (Sweden) has developed and qualified an RF Centralized Power Supply Unit (RFCPSU), in order to supply a high number of RF equipment like LNA’s and Converters with power, without the need for secondary power conversion at each load.
This highly competitive and fully European technology for centralized power supply and monitoring is especially designed for the operation of active Antennas with beam forming capabilities. Designed with Airbus Defence and Space’s new Eurostar Neo platform as a reference case, it can also be adapted for embarkation on other telecommunications missions. It is prepared for mission specific modifications like triple or quadruple built-in redundancy, different data interfaces towards the on-board computer, selectable input voltage and in-orbit adjustable output voltage.
The RFCPSU unit contains 160 output channels in each redundancy chain that are independently and individually under voltage and over current protected. The state of each channel can be monitored by telemetry.
ESA Partnership Projects, as part of the Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme, allow the development of sustainable, end-to-end systems up to the point of in-orbit validation. At the same time, they help to federate industry around large-scale programmes and to achieve not only technical leaps forward but also positive economic impact.
