Description
The objective of this activity is to develop a compact dielectric high power output de-multiplexer for Ka-band multibeamsystems and to evaluate the concept by means of Ku-band and Ka-band engineering models.
Targeted Improvements: 30% footprint reduction with respect to state of the art solutions.
Description: In current multi-beam (Ka/Ku-band) systems a single Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA) is shared between two or more beams in order to reduce the number of high power amplifiers embarked on the satellite. An Output De-Multiplexer (ODEMUX) is employed after the TWTA to separate the signals destined for each beam. For multibeam systems a high number of identical ODEMUX are required due to the nature of the frequency re-use scheme. This imposes very stringent requirements on the ODEMUX in terms of mass and footprint.
Dielectric-loaded cavity filters offer significant size, mass and footprint reductions of at least 30%.Today this class of filters is being extensively used for Input Multiplexer (IMUX) channels in all bandsand for high power Output Multiplexer (OMUX) channels in C-band. In Ku-band technical solutions for dielectric OMUX are limited to moderate power levels not more than 80 - 100 W per channel due to the narrow bandwidth.
In comparison to today's OMUX, ODEMUX have amuch wider bandwidth requirement of 250 MHz or more and hence the use of dielectric-loaded cavities in Ku- and Ka-band becomes feasible also for higher RF power levels.
In this activity, 250 W-class, Ku-band and Ka-band two-channel output demultiplexers with 250 MHz channel bandwidth and with 30 per cent footprint reduction in comparison to the state of the art shall be designed, manufacturedand tested experimentally.
Tender Specifics