HIGH THROUGHPUT SATELLITE (HTS) GATEWAY Q/V - BAND FEED ANTENNA (ARTES AT 6B.040 )

Description

Objective:The objective of this activity is to design a Q/V band gateway antenna, and develop and test a Q/V band feedfor 7 to 12 meters antennas suitable for future feeder link gateways.

Targeted Improvements:Development of enabling technology for:

  • High Q/V Band EIRP on the ground (>90-95 dBW).
  • Suitable to fit in Q/V-band Gateway antennas with diameters 7 - 12 m.
  • Capableof monopulse precise antenna tracking.
  • Capable to operate over the full band in dual circular polarization.

Description:Antennas, operating in Q/V-Band, with a diameter of 3-4m and operating over limited bandwidth, have been developed to support propagation and communications experiments (i.e. Alphasat TDP5 Ka/Q Band Propagation Experiment)

.These antennas have been intended to cope withmission link budget and perform propagation experiments minimising the size of the antenna and masking the fading/scintillations events.Future HTS systems will use Q/V-Band for the gateway feeder links. This will allow the full use of the Ka-Band for user links resulting in a significant increase of the overall capacity for the users.

The next generation of Q/V band Feeder Link gateways require antennas with diameters ranging from 7 to 12 meters able to handle higher EIRP and G/T than those currently available.

These newantennas shall be able to house a large amount of RF hardware in a small space and can be developed using existing Ka-Band concepts.

The aim of this activity is twofold: to design a new class of 7-12 m Q/V band antenna and develop and test a complete Q/V band feed capable of handling high EIRP, monopulse precise tracking and able to be fit in an apex cabin.

The design should be such that mostof the integration can be done at factory, allowing for an efficient packing and easy integration.The following topics shall be part of the deliverables:

  • Optimised mechanical antenna design to minimise performance degradation (antenna RMS and pointing loss) due to gravity and wind loads.
  • Optimised RF geometry in order to minimize ohmic losses in waveguides.
  • Capability of mono-pulse tracking and full band dual polarisation.
  • The design should Include a package-transportation and integration design such that it allows:
  • In-plant integration of feed transmit and receive electronics
  • Shipping of the cabin with integrated and tested electronics
  • Short on-site installation period.
  • Easy accessibility during operation.
  • Develop, implement and test a Q/V band feed breadboard including all required transmit/receive passive components designed to be integrated in apex cabins .Priority 2 activities willonly be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.

Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news "Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes".

Tender Specifics