GAN BASED, PASSIVELY COOLED, LINEARISED L BAND SSPA FOR AVIONICS TERMINALS (ARTES 5.1 7C.034)

Description

Objective: To study the feasibility (from both technical and market standpoints) of a passively cooled, high efficiency, low cost, linearised SSPAs for avionics terminals. The activity includes the design, manufacture and test of a prototype SSPA that meets BGAN and ANTARES communication standards.
Targeted improvements:
Only passive cooling at maximum dissipation.
Efficiency improvement by 15% points (HPA PAE > 60%, SSPA > 55%).
Simplified circuit topology of HPA stage.
Meeting ETSI mask set with a low cost integrated lineariser.
Low Cost, Small Size < 170x100x30 mm2.

Background:
Air traffic control is adapting to new communication standards e.g. FANS system based on BGAN (INMARSAT) and ANTARES communication standards. Several thousands of new L band terminals will be required for aircrafts of all sizes and shapes. Due to limited room and noise requirements inside commercial & personal aircrafts air cooling is not permitted in many cases. For small and low cost aircraft terminals, the cost of cooling systems are prohibitively expensive. The heat sinks for the SSPAs need to be compact enough to fit the limited and highly variable size requirements specified by aircraft manufacturers.
GaN technology, which has a very high junction temperature(MTTF>200 years@ 200 degree Celsius) and 50 V operation, allows for a more efficient, compact size heat sink.
The usual GaAs SSPAs do not appear to be able to meet these new, more stringent requirements, hence the movement to GaN technology. The ?GaAs versus GaN? debate will also be examined in this effort.
This activity proposes the design and build of a GaN SSPA where the dissipated power is low enough such that only a passive heat sink would be required for cooling. The design of a compact heat sink and a low cost linearizer will be studied.
Experimental verification will be used to compare the European 50V Si LDMOS and 50V GaN technologies. The GaN SSPA should conform to relevant ARINC standards.
Work flow:
- Survey of requirements.
- Architecture definition.
- Design and manufacturing of heat sink.
- Design, manufacturing and testing of low cost linearisers.
- Design, manufacturing and testing of SSPA.
- Cost reduction alternatives.

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".

Tender Specifics