PAGE CONTENTS
Objectives
The objective of the project is to develop C and Ku band RF units and to perform the associated industrialisation activities in order to improve the technical and cost competitiveness of units in the following product lines:
- Front end units (Receivers , Down Converters),
- LCAMP and C-band SSPAs,
- Filters,
- TTC Receivers.
Challenges
Front End Units:
The main objective of this study was to complete the competitiveness efforts of already existing Front End Units product family with the C band Units family.
The major key issue was the completion of the development C Band Macro-hybrid module which performs most of the RF performances. Together with this new RF module development , the LO and DC/DC modules have been updated to improve productivity and costs. The whole product family will take benefits of the improvements achieved on theses common modules.
A fully qualified C Band EQM has demonstrated all the expected improvements.
A fully qualified Ku Band Receiver EQM was also manufactured and tested.
All these improvements are also available for the whole product family, from C to Ku Band and for Receiver, Down Converter and Up Converters.
LCAMP:
First, the main objective of this study was to improve competitiveness of already existing CAMP product family. To this end, one of the major key issue was the completion of the development of the improved linearizer and its industrialization. Indeed, a first version has been embarked on the Artes 3 Flexible LCAMP EQM in Ku band but this version was not cost effective enough to be proposed on a large market. As a consequence, a huge work had to be done in the frame of Artes 4 to clear this issue, which has been achieved successfully.
Second, this study also aimed to prepare the future with preliminary works on the CAMP New Generation. This topic is also particularly critical since it will steer the technological orientation for the future generation that will determine our market share for the future.
Plan
Main Objectives of the Project:
Improve competitiveness of already existing product families, Telecom receivers, Channel Amplifiers and Command receivers.
State of the art efficient OMUX D&D with huge improvements in Power Handling Capabilities together with mass and size savings.
C band Receiver:
Development of a new RF Front End using up to date technologies mastered by Thales-Alenia-Space.
Redesign of an improved LO Section suitable at least for all the Receiver Product Family Design and develop a new DC/DC section suitable at least for all the Receiver Product Family.
Command Receiver:
Improvement of the current generation product competitiveness by implementing cost effective solutions.
LCAMP:
- Improvement of manufacturing efficiency
- Interchangeability between Standard and Improved Linearizer
- Stacked structure version LCAMP/LCAMP
SSPA:
Development of an efficiency enhanced HPA module in order to improve the C-band SSPA performance. The development will include design, manufacturing and test of breadboard modules. In order to reach the efficiency target of 40% at SSPA level, the efficiency of the HPA module has to be better than 57 %.
Filter:
Design, development and qualification of a Vertical OMUX .
Design development and qualification of an aluminum thermo-compensated manifold .
Design and validation of 5-6 poles filter concept compatible to vertical OMUX mechanical architecture.
Current Status
C band & ku band Receivers:
Ku Band telecom receiver has been fully tested with expected performances.
C Band telecom receiver has been fully tested with expected performance.
Command Receiver:
Qualification sequence of Command receiver is in progress, and soon finished.
LCAMP:
Ku-Band LCAMP EQM has been fully qualified with expected performances.
C-Band LCAMP EQM has been fully qualified with expected performances.
SSPA:
In the frame of this program, a new generation HPA module with improved efficiency and output power has been designed and characterized.
The enhanced efficiency HPA module delivers more than 22W of output power with an PAE higher than 57%.
This will result at SSPA level in an improved efficiency higher than 40% that will allow proposing a competitive C-band SSPA on the market.
Next activity will be to develop and qualify a C-band EQM SSPA based on this state-of-the-art HPA.
Filters:
Vertical Topology OMUX has been fully qualified and final review held.
Manifold compensated OMUX fully qualified and final review held.
5-6 poles filters tested and final review held.
C Band IMUX has been fully qualified and final review held.
OLPF has been fully qualified and final review held.
TTC Filter breadboard tested and final review held.