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Funding
This page displays the ARTES Invitation To Tenders (ITTs) which are published on ESA-STAR. If you are looking for a specific element select from the list provided and click on the Apply button to start the search and display the results.
Funding of the individual Prime or subcontractors, for ARTES Core Competitiveness and ARTES Applications activities, is subject to authorisation of the required ARTES budget by the related National Delegations. Therefore, bidding teams are requested to inform their National Delegation(s) of their intention to participate in funded activities already before submitting a proposal.
The official information platform for providing potential bidders all the relevant documentation and details concerning the intended and issued Invitations To Tender (ITTs) for Open Competitions and Direct Negotiations is ESA-STAR - managed and operated by the ESA Procurement Department.
SPATIALLY COMBINED 40 W - 60 W Q-BAND SOLID STATE POWER AMPLIFIER (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.494)
The objective of this activity is to develop, manufacture and test a highly efficient Q-band spatial power divider and combiner forapplication in Q-band Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA). Experimental performance verification shall be carried out on a 40 - 60 W (nominal operating point) Q-band SSPA breadboard. Targeted Improvements: Improved power added efficiency of 5 - 10% of Q-band SSPAs in comparison to the state of the art. Description:…
DEVELOPMENT OF A SOFTWARE BASED GENERIC OPTICAL GROUND STATION MODEL (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6B.126)
The objective of this activity is to develop and test a software platform acting as an abstraction layer between the optical groundstation software client and the various software and hardware modules and their interfaces. Software implementation to be agnostic to operating systems and shall be based on object-oriented techniques to enable creation of a generic optical ground station model prior to programming. Testing shall and use commercial…
ANTENNA FOR UNIVERSAL SATELLITE-TERRESTRIAL 5G LAND MOBILE TERMINALS (ARTES SPL 5G 7C.061) (UPON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Upon Delegation Request (*) The objective of the activity is to develop and validate a mobile terminal antenna that supports satellite connectivity and terrestrial 5G. A prototype of the antenna will be manufactured and tested in a laboratory environment. Targeted Improvements: Terminal size, weight and power reduction (30 to 50%) achieved by integrating 5G satellite and terrestrial antenna systems.The integration of satellite communications…
RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNAS FOR MOBILE TERMINALS BASED ON ACTIVE ACTUATORS (ARTES 4.0 AT 7C.080)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a Ku- or Ka-band transmit or receive antenna based on reconfigurable actuators for large mobile terminals connected to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.Targeted Improvements:Enabling reconfigurable terminal antennas with scan angles up to 50-60 degrees exploiting active actuators like pin or varactor diodes, MEMS and other possible actuators with an overall antenna thickness belo…
COMPACT, HIGH TEMPERATURE AND MODULAR 100 W-CLASS ELECTRONIC POWER CONDITIONER FOR KU- AND KA-BAND TRAVELLING WAVE TUBES (ARTES AT 5C.514)
The objective of this activity is to develop and test a modular 100W-class Ku- and Ka-band universal compact Electronic Power Conditioner (EPC) based on MHz-range switching frequency, high temperature, wide bandgap technology and planar magnetics. This will include an efficient thermal management design.Targeted Improvements: - Mass, footprint and volume reduction up to 30% whilst maintaining efficiency comparable to current state of art.- Com…
HIGH POWER W-BAND TRANSMIT-RECEIVE DIPLEXERS FOR GROUND STATIONS (ARTES AT 6B.118) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST) - EXPRO+
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a high-power Tx/Rx W-band diplexer for ground terminals.Targeted Improvements:Enabling technology for ground stations W-band gateway links with high power handling and low PIM.Description:The useof the available spectrum in W-band (71-76 GHz for downlink and 81-86 GHz for uplink) is attractive to satcom systems asit could beadopted in the gateway of Very High Throughput Satellites (…
POWER EFFICIENT ONBOARD ANALOGUE PHOTONIC INTERCONNECTS FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT SATELLITES (HTS) (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5F.050)
The objective of the activity is to develop very low power analogue photonic interconnects for linking antennas to the on-board digital processor in high throughput satellites, also in view of an all-optical satellite implementationTargeted Improvements:Increase connector density by 100% through the replacement of the coaxial cable connectors with multi-fibre connectors, more than halvingthe harness mass and volume linking the antennas to the…
SECURITY ASSESSMENT, TESTING AND VALIDATION CAPABILITY FOR INNOVATIVE SECURE COMMUNICATIONS AND QUANTUM TECHNOLOGIES (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL 3D.018) RE-ISSUE
The objectives of the activity are to identify the needs and requirements for new security assessment capabilities for satcom systems and their components, define related architectural solutions and develop prototypes of the main components of these capabilities.Targeted Improvements: Enabling testing, verification and validation of advanced technologies in the domain of cybersecurity, modern telecom and quantum security (Quantum Key Distribut…
WDM LASER SOURCES AT 1064NM (ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT 5F.018) - RE-ISSUE
Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop low noise and small footprint semiconductor laser diodes at 1064nm compatible with WDM operation and the associated low-power consumption driving electronics. The activity shall also investigate technologicaloptions to further reduce the footprint and the power consumption of the low-power section of an optical transmitter at 1064nm (e.g., integration of multiple lasers diodes, optical mod…
BEYOND 5G (B5G) AND 6G NON-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS EDGE COMPUTING SATELLITES (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3A.184)
The objective of the activity is to study and define a technical and deployment roadmap for edge-computing-enabled Beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G space infrastructure. Use cases of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) edge computing will be selected and a corresponding demonstrator will be breadboarded and tested.Targeted Improvements: Enabling edge-computing-capable space infrastructure.Description:The Beyond 5G (B5G)/towards 6G roadmap is rapidly evolving…
IN ORBIT EXPERIMENT OF AUTONOMOUS DEPLOYMENT AND EARLY OPERATIONS FOR TELECOM CONSTELLATION SATELLITES (ARTES AT 3E.024) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design and perform an in-orbit experiment investigating autonomous deployment and early operations for telecom constellation satellites. This includes the development of command and data-handling hardware as well as AI/ML based operational algorithms developed on-ground.Targeted Improvements: Increase of onboard autonomy by 50% (i.e. include the key number of autonomous functions), including attitude acquis…
KA-BAND TRANSMIT SPARSE ACTIVE PHASED ARRAY AND BEAMFORMING NETWORKS FOR NGSO USER LINKS (ARTES AT 5B.240)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a partial RF breadboard of a transmit Ka-band, active phased array antenna and associated beamforming network for user links NGSO, exploiting irregular layouts for the radiating elements and beamforming networks.Targeted Improvements: In comparison to a standard, fully populated array:- 25% reduction in the number of active controls,- 5% increase in the DC to RF power efficiency…
TRANSMIT-RECEIVE BEAMFORMING AND FRONT-END CIRCUITS AND CHIPS FOR Q-V BAND SATCOM TERMINALS (ARTES AT 7C.097)
Objectives: The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test integrated circuits of the critical beamforming functions in silicon technologies, enabling Q/V-band electronically steerable antenna for satcom terminals. As a minimum, two types of integrated circuits will be developed. One chip shall be a multichannel transmit-receive beamforming radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) and the second chip shall be a multichannel…
WDM HIGH-POWER OPTICAL AMPLIFIER AT 1064NM (ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT 5F.020)
Objective: The objective is to develop a high-power and high-efficient optical booster amplifier, compatible with WDM operation at 1064nm wavelength range. Two versions, with different output optical power and wall-plug efficiency requirements, are to be developed to address operation under space and ground environmental conditions. Targeted Improvements:Strategic component not available inESA's Member States nor in Cooperating/Associated…
OPEN REPROGRAMMABLE SPACE INFRASTRUCTURE TESTBED FOR BEYOND 5G (B5G) END-TO-END SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3E.019)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test a reprogrammable testbed in space to permit the experimentation of Beyond 5G (B5G) satellite features and capabilities and enable technology verification and demonstration; rapid validation of end-to-end solutions and services, following the principles of continuous development/continuous integration. B5G satellitefeatures will be implemented in the testbed as part of the activity to demonst…
HIGH IMPULSE ARGON ELECTRIC THRUSTER (ARTES AT 4B.181)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an electric thruster using Argon propellant, compatible with the long lifetime and high total impulse requirements of telecommunication satellites in GEO and for constellations.Targeted Improvements:- Novel capability to operate with Argon propellant not existing today.- Improved lifetime and Total Impulse per kW(N.s/kW) by a factor of 2.- Decreased complexity of the thruster arc…
QUANTUM RESISTANT KEY EXCHANGE AND AUTHENTICATION MECHANISM FOR 5G NON-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3D.026)
The objective of this activity is to identify, analyse and test post quantum cryptographic solutions that are suitable for 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) key exchange and authentication. The activity will develop a testbed to implement and test identified post quantum cryptographic solutions.
ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT: SPACE QUALIFIED FAINT PULSE LASER SOURCE FOR QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION (5G.003/SL.012)(ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Objective:The objective of the activity is to develop and qualify a faint pulse laser source for space-based quantum key distribution systems.Targeted Improvements:Increase the technical readiness level of faint pulse laser sources suitable for quantum key distribution applications from 5 to 7. Description:Quantum key distribution systems using protocols based on faint laser pulses require a photon source emitting less than one photon per puls…
POWER EFFICIENT DESIGN OF RADIO FREQUENCY PAYLOAD ALGORITHMS ON SYSTEM ON CHIP (ARTES AT 5C.513)
The objective of the activity is to identify and benchmark power efficient radio frequency algorithms on complex System on Chip (SoC) devices. Power efficient algorithms for at least two applications case (e.g. beamforming, decoding/encoding, neural networks...) will be designed, developed and tested and compared to programmable logic only implementation.Targeted Improvements: 50% reductionpower consumption for radio frequency algorithms with…
MULTICAST OPTICAL HEAD UNIT (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5G.037)
Objective:The objective of the activity is to develop a space-based point to multipoint optical terminal.Targeted Improvements:The MOHU would reduce the number of required Optical Head Units by a factor greater than 2. The MOHU should target a mass and sizeless than x1.5 the mass and size of the combined individual Optical Head Units.Description:Today the implementation of simultaneous optical space to ground links (Optical Feeder Links) requi…
ONBOARD DATA HANDLING SUB-SYSTEM FOR AUTONOMOUS SATELLITES (ARTES AT 4G.044)
The objective is to develop an onboard data handling architecture capable of autonomously acquiring, processing and interpreting housekeeping and telemetry data and taking the required actions without ground intervention. The activity will develop a data handlingsub-system demonstrator to validate the intelligent functionalities, including prognostic and health management (PHM) capabilitiesTargeted Improvements: Enabling technology development…
10W PER MM CLASS THERMALLY ENHANCED HIGH EFFICIENCY MICROWAVE POWER AMPLIFIERS (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.491) (RE-ISSUE)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a breadboard of a high-power amplifier in Ku-band or above with 10 W/mm class of power density in continuous wave operation. The selected manufacturing process will allow a smaller chip size with reduced junction temperature, reduced thermal memory effects and improved efficiency.Targeted Improvements:- 3-5 times improvementin power density.- Junction temperature reduction of te…
IN-ORBIT EXPERIMENT OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE DATA TRANSPORT, SWITCHING AND PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES FOR TELECOM APPLICATIONS IN LOW EARTH ORBIT (ARTES AT 3E.017) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and perform an in-orbit experiment of high-performance data transport, switching and processing technologies consisting of several key building blocks like processors, mass memory, switches and optical interconnects, allowing a data throughput of up to 10 Terabit per second to enable future high performance telecommunication applications. Targeted Improvements: Improvement by a factor of two…
BEAM FORMING CHIP FOR DIRECT RADIATING ARRAY ANTENNAS FOR W-BAND FEEDER LINKS (ARTES AT 5C.457) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test an engineering model of a beam forming network chip to support direct radiating array antennas in W-band for future receive chain feeder links in ultra-high throughput satellite telecommunication payloads.Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology for reconfigurable antennas in W-band for ultra-high-throughput satellite feederlinks (at least 1 Tbit/s throughput) not existing tod…
DIGITAL TWIN FOR ON-ORBIT ASSEMBLY AND MANUFACTURING OF VERY LARGE ANTENNAS (ARTES AT 5B.235)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test a digital-twin for on-orbit assembly and manufacturing of antennas up to 30-50metres diameter. An end-to-end manufacturing process will be selected and guidance, navigation and control techniques for assembly and manufacturing on-orbit will be developed. A simple large reflector antenna will be designed, and assembly and manufacturing will be evaluated with the developed digital twin.Targete…