Description
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 qualification effort by 50%.Description: Current flexible satellites offer flexibility in terms of coverage and in-band frequency reconfigurability. This reconfigurability is frequency-band specific as these satellites can operate in either Ku-band or Ka-band, but not both. However, frequency agnostic antennas are needed for future satcom systems. A key building block for such systems are multi-band power amplifiers. A multi-band power amplifier could offer both Ku-band andKa-band capability for in-orbit configuration and could provide the payload with enhanced and seamless multi-band flexibility. Thisactivity will design, manufacture and test a multi-band Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) power amplifier breadboard covering both Ku and Ka band to achieve nominal operating power level in the range of 2W to 4W with greater than 35% power added efficiency at amplifier module over both frequency bands with minimised footprint, enabling future multi-band active antenna arrays in LEOsatellites.