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.

  • L-BAND GALLIUM NITRIDE LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER-BASED RF FRONT-END (ARTES AT 5C.465) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)

    The objective of the activity is to design a compact L-band RF front-end for telecom applications which is based on a GaN Low NoiseAmplifier (LNA). A breadboard of a GaN microwave monolithic integrated circuit will be developed and tested. The RF front-end including the filtering function shall be modelled.Targeted Improvements: up to 30% mass and volume saving of the RF front-end (LNA and filtering) and 20 dB improvement of the LNA dynamic ra…

  • RELIABLE SIMPLE ELECTRICAL INSULATION FOR SATCOM PLATFORMS (ARTES AT 4F.172)

    The objective of the activity is to test electrical insulation methods to replace reliable electrical insulation by reliable simpleelectrical insulation and to provide inputs to guidelines to ECSS-E-ST-20C Rev2.Targeted Improvements:Mass, volume, manufacturing time reduced by a factor of 2 compared to current reliable insulation technologies.Description: Double insulation rules lead tooversize electrical architectures to make them robust to s…

  • ASIC/FPGA WITH 112 GBPS OPTICAL I/OS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5C.480)

    The objective of this activity is to develop the technology step needed to enable the use of optical interconnects at speeds of up to 112 Gbps. This should be demonstrated through testing of an integrated digital signal functions (ASIC and FPGAs) with the developed electro-optic transceiver photonic integrated circuits that form the optical I/Os to replace traditional electrical I/O.Targeted Improvements:Increase the data rate throughput up to…

  • REAL-TIME DEMONSTRATION OF ERASURE CORRECTING CODE FOR OPTICAL FEEDER LINKS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 3C.048)

    The objective of the activity is to develop and test a real time 100 Gbps erasure code (both coder and decoder components) for optical feeder link protection.Targeted Improvements:Ensure high availability nominally required in feeder links by exceeding 99.5% of link availability due to atmospheric turbulence.Description:The use of terrestrial COTS optical transceivers in optical ground-space and space to space link will enable high throughput…

  • MAGNETIC BEARING SYSTEMS FOR HIGH-SPEED ROTARY MECHANISMS (ARTES 4.0 AT 4E.092)

    Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a magnetic bearing system for high-speed rotary mechanisms in telecommunication spacecraft applications (e.g. reaction wheels or thermal control pumps and compressors). Targeted Improvements:- Increase rotation speed by a factor of 2 (resulting in higher angular momentum capability). - Increase lifetime by a factor of 2 (due to contact-less bearings and no lubrication)…

  • DUAL BAND KU- AND KA-BAND POWER AMPLIFIER FOR FUTURE FLEXIBLE PAYLOADS (ARTES AT 5C.515)

    The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an engineering model of a multi-band (Ku and Ka-band) integrated power amplifier for application in Lower Earth Orbit satellites, enabling seamless flexibility and reconfigurability for active antenna arrays. Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology for seamless Ku- and Ka-band flexible payloads:- reduces mass and volume by 50%,- improves reliability, bill of material and quali…

  • BACKGROUND LIGHT AND ATMOSPHERE METROLOGY FOR QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION AT URBAN LOCATIONS (4S SAGA)

    Development of tools and hardware and the execution of a measurement campaign for background light and atmosphere conditions for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) at urban location (major cities and metropolitan areas) under ARTES 4.0 Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S) Strategic Programme Line. These measurement results are an important check point to validate the design of the SAGA system. The background light and atmosphere metrology ac…

  • HIGH BANDWIDTH INTERFACE RADIATION MITIGATION IP CORE FOR PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC DEVICES (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.489)

    The objective of the activity is to develop, implement and test a 100 Gbps class interface radiation mitigation IP core for programmable logic devices for application in Low Earth and Geostationary Orbits. This includes hardware radiation characterisation and testing. Targeted Improvements: 3 to 4 times improvement of high-speed serial link data rate (from 32 Gbps to 112 Gbps) under radiation conditions. Description: State of the art programma…

  • END-TO-END ADAPTIVE OPTICS BI-DIRECTIONAL MODELLING TOOL FOR OPTICAL FEEDER LINKS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.035) - EXPRO+

    Objective: This activity aims at developing a modular software tool allowing to simulate the improvement from employing adaptive optics (AO) systems in bidirectional optical ground station (OGS) to satellites optical communication and quantum links scenarios (e.g. GEO, LEO, MEO). Targeted Improvements: 50% improvement of design time and computation time to dimension optical communication systems operating through atmospheric turbulence enhance…

  • NETWORK EMBEDDED HYBRID CONNECTIVITY OVER TERRESTRIAL AND SATELLITE 5G ACCESS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.012)

    Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a 5G system to support upper layer Access Traffic Switching, Steering and Splitting (ATSSS) mechanisms relating a User Equipment (UE) data session across dual terrestrial and satellite 5G access, as well as over dual 5G satellite access.Targeted Improvements:- Enable dual 3GPP access- Significant part reduction - Network and device centric system- Enable 5G Core Network w…

  • MULTI-PLATFORM DUAL BAND CONFIGURABLE POWER AMPLIFIER FOR AVIONIC TERMINALS (ARTES AT 7C.052) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)

    Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test a breadboard of a L- and C-band configurable power amplifier to enable dual band operation of avionic terminals. It shall demonstrate 200W peak power per channel and a 10dB dynamic rangewith a constant average power added efficiency of at least 50% for both bands, without compromising linearity performance. The breadboard shall include driver, main and peak amplifier,…

  • DEVELOPMENT OF A TESTBED TO ASSESS SPACECRAFT MATERIALS ROBUSTNESS AGAINST ATOMIC OXYGEN IN VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT ENVIRONMENT (ARTES AT 4A.101)

    The Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture a testbed to determine materials behaviour of atomic oxygen fluence exposure representative in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) environment. With the help of the testbed, in a second step, an aerodynamic and oxygen fluence resistant coating will be developed and evaluated as needed for protection of exposed parts of the spacecraft to the VLEO environment.Targeted Improvements: E…

  • 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…

  • PROTOCOL STACK ENABLING VOICE-CALL USING NON-TERRESTRIAL IOT WAVEFORM (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.013)

    The objective of this activity is to develop the software protocol stack for Release 18 enhancements related to 5G New for Radio (NR) for Non-Terrestrial Networks. The software protocol stack development shall be based on a testbed considering both the User Equipment (UE) and g-NodeB (gNB) features and operational procedures.Targeted Improvements:Enable 5G NR NTN system performance simulations with the latest Release 18 modifications.Descripti…

  • VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT GAS GENERATOR FOR AIR-BREATHING ELECTRIC PROPULSION GROUND TESTING (ARTES 4.0 AT 4B.174)

    The objective of the activity is to develop, build and test a gas generator to reproduce the gas flow density and composition of a Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) environment with high fidelity for on-ground testing of air-breathing electric propulsion systems.Targeted Improvements:Enabling a European gas generators for ground testing of VLEO missions.Description: Electric propulsion technologies developed for Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) applicati…

  • 5G AUTOMOTIVE MAKERSPACE (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.010)

    Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test automotive prototypes following 5GAA workplans and increase the number of companies working on automotive satellite communications by 30%. Targeted Improvements: Novel hand-over methods between satellite and terrestrial networks supporting use cases as formulated by 5GAA and miniaturised automotive terminal baseband units.Description: The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA)…

  • SMALLSAT PLATFORM WITH SELF-TRANSFER CAPABILITY INTO GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT (ARTES AT 3E.001) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)

    The objective of this activity is to develop radiation tolerant platform technologies and semi-autonomous orbit transfer capabilityfor small satellite platforms. An experimental small satellite will be designed, manufactured and launched. The satellite will feature the platform technologies developed as well as a simple telecommunication payload allowing experiments during orbit raising to GEO as well as in GSO. Targeted Improvements: Enabling…

  •  ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 5A.087 REGENERATIVE TRANSPONDER WITH BUILT-IN SIGNAL SECURITY PROCESSING FOR USER AUTHORISATION 

    The objective of the activity is to develop technology to prevent non authorised usage of satellite communication bandwidth throughthe implementation and enforcement of on-board authentication protocols. During this activity+ a breadboard that implements such protocol will be developed in a laboratory environment.

  • 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…

  • HANDOVER ENGINE AND TESTBED FOR SATELLITE-BASED 5G NON-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS (NTNS) (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.015)

    The objective of this activity is to develop a machine learning (ML) engine that optimises handover between two different 5G networks, where at least one of them is a satellite-based non-terrestrial network (NTN). The activity will also provide the testbed to assess the handover key performance indicators in a laboratory environment.Targeted Improvements:Identify and avoid higher risk handovers improving thus the handover success rate to reach…

  • 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 (…

  • WEATHER-PROOF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION GROUND TERMINAL (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.050 ) EXPRO PLUS

    The objective of this activity is to evaluate the pros and cons of a weather-proof optical ground terminal (without protective domeenclosure) and to breadboard critical sub-systems. Targeted Improvements:At least 50% faster optical ground station deployment.Description:Today telescopes for ground based free-space optical satellite communication are originating from astronomical telescopes. The current need for optical ground telescopes has cha…

  • SINGLE-CHIP 71-86 GHZ TRANSCEIVER RFIC FOR AERONAUTICAL SATCOM APPLICATIONS (ARTES AT 6A.074) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)

    The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an integrated W-band transceiver Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) configurable as transmitter and receiver covering the 71-86 GHz band for aeronautical satcom applications. Targeted Improvements: Enable satellite aeronautical broadband services in W-band. Description: The maturity of Silicon technologies allows for the implementation of multifunctional and reconfigurable…

  • 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…

  • 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…