Description
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test low phase noise millimetre-wave VCOs based on a photonic integrated circuit for Q/V/W-band local oscillators. Targeted Improvements:- Improvement of 10 to 20 dB on phase noise performance as compared to state-of-the-art MMIC implementation- Compliance to phase noise requirements for Q/V and future W-band frequency convertersDescription: Very high throughput satellites call for the use of Q/V and W-band to increase their communication capacity. Conventional Local Oscillators (LO) for frequency converters rely on millimetre-wave Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs). However, the phase noise performance is degraded at higher LO frequencies and limits the end-to-end system link budget. The concept of a low phase noise millimetre-wave oscillator based on microwave photonic techniques has already been demonstrated with excellent performance for ground applications, but with limited integration and compactness. The introduction of microwave photonics allows the high Q that is needed for Q/V and W-band applications to be achieved and overcomes the limitations of conventional MMIC-based solutions. This activity will develop and test a breadboard of a microwave photonic voltage-controlled oscillator based on photonic integrated circuit technologies, with 10 to 20 dB improvement of the phase noise performance compared to astate-of-the-art MMIC implementation. Procurement Policy: C(2) = A relevant participation (in terms of quality and quantity) of non-primes (incl. SMEs) is required. For additional information please go to: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/Small_and_Medium_Sized_En…