Description
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a Scaled Engineering Model of rugged Ka-band RF front-end for secure TTC applications that will enable technologies for mitigation of intentional interference. Targeted Improvements: Ability to operate under severe Radio Frequency Interference. Description: TTC is a key equipment for all satellites since it provides the umbilical cord to the control station(s). It has to operate in an RF environment that tends to become more and more congested and interference prone, whether intentionally or non-intentionally. For secure communications such as government satellites, techniques like spread spectrum and CDMA (Code Division Mulitplexing Access) etc., may help but on the condition that the RF receiver front-end still operates in a linear regime. Operation in linear regime means that signal is not distorted and decoding is possible as it should meetminimum required Signal to Noise ratio. For secure communications, increasing linear power dynamic range by 20 dB will allow decoding of CDMA and spread sprectum signals. Therefore, by moving from GaAs (Gallium Arsenide) to GaN (Gallium Nitride) technology, such rugged Ka-band RF front ends are possible which can operate under intentional or unintentional radio frequency interference. Recent developments have proven that GaN technology can provide a much improved linearity as well as higher power handling as compared to more traditional GaAs technology used in all current TTC implementation. To realise Rugged Ka-band RF front end in GaN technology to enable secure communications due to their linearity and high power handling capability is the primary aim of this activity.