Description
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a breadboard of a highly integrated Q-V band beam forming network forflexible on-board feeder link active antennas. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a European source for Q-V band beamforming for feeder links. Description: Feeder links in next generation Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS) rely on a full RF chain in Q-V band. Today, mechanically steerable multi-feed antenna architectures have been adopted for Q-V band feeder links. However, in order to reduce the complexity of the ground infrastructure, active antenna-based solutions are envisaged for the future using digital, analogue or hybrid beamforming networks (BFN). The advantages of integrated beamforming networks have been demonstrated in mm-wave 5G terrestrial applications and the technology is now ready to be extended to Q-V band in Europe for space applications. Several European foundries are available to support the development of integrated circuits operating in Q-V band. It is expected that the SiGe BiCMOS or Silicone On Insulator technologies will offer the best performance trade-offs and commercial viability. This activity will assess technologies for broadband highly integrated Q-V band beamforming networks as needed for analogue, digital or hybrid beamforming architectures. A breadboard of a broadband integrated BFN will be designed, manufactured and experimentally tested for a selected reference active antenna.