Ka Band Transceiver

Status

Completed
Status date

2015-11-13
Activity Code

6A.016

Objectives

The project aimed at developing a low cost Ka Band 2W Transceiver for use on HYLAS.

Challenges

The project addressed the major issues associated with the design of a low cost product for use in Ka band, In particular the thermal issues associated with achieving a high performance at the highest efficiency and operating temperature range.

The Phase Noise and Spurious outputs of the unit were also critical in order to meet ETSI requirements.

Benefits

The benefit of using this new Transceiver design is that the next generation of User Terminals will be able to be supplied at lower cost with improved performance, thereby servicing more end users from the HYLAS Satellite.

Features

Under an earlier ESA funded project, Invacom developed a Ku band 2W transmitter unit. The company also developed and was manufacturing in volume a number of components for Ka band VSAT systems. However this did not include an integrated Transceiver.

This project was carried out in order to design this Transceiver to complete the product range and enable the supply of complete ODU’s for use on the emerging Ka band systems.

The design was carried out in conjunction with Avanti in order to meet the performance requirements of the HYLAS satellites operated by the company.

The exacting technical performance of the ODU resulted in a high performance design with high power efficiency that can be applied to other Ka band services. The LNB has a very low noise figure enabling reduced cost design of the other components in the system, in particular the feed chain.

Plan

WP 1 System Specification
WP 2 Transmitter Electrical Design
WP 3 LNB Design
WP 4 Industrial Design
WP 5 Mechanical Design
WP 6 Industrial Trial System Design and Build
WP 7 EMC and Environmental Approvals
WP 8 Customer Trials and Tests
WP 9 Administration and Control

Current status

The project has been successfully completed. A new Ka Band Transceiver is now available, and this has been designed into the next generation of Ka band Terminals for use on HYLAS.

Trial manufacturing runs of this new product are underway, and full scale production will be initiated following their successful completion.