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StatusOngoing
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Status date2010-11-23
Drawing on a substantial body of knowledge and experience COMDEV are committed to developing and delivering a novel concept to address the substantial task of operating powers in excess of 500W per channel. The project plan includes allocation to investigate filter options capable of handling the power through optimisation of the loss trading off mass and form factor.
Following the design optimisation the leading filter candidate will be subject to full power testing in order to validate the design as well as ‘calibrate’ the design models. Following successful filter level validation a three channel multiplexer will be designed, built and validation tested. In conjunction with the 3 channel validation multiplexer a detailed analysis will be conducted for an 8 channel multiplexer.
The key issue in developing a 500w per channel filter and multiplexer is clearly the power handling. Compounding this issue is a substantial thermal design required to dissipate the thermal load of fault condition testing.
The primary benefit of the 500W per channel project will be its introduction to the COMDEV product line. With this introduction in fall 2010 COMDEV will be at the forefront of the emerging requirement for high power output multiplexers.
The designed / developed hardware will represent a optimisation between filter mass, size and power handling. The design will be bounded by standard spacecraft design factors including mass, maximum thermal flux, multiplexer footprint and of course optimal RF performance and thermal stability.
The project has been divided into three elements. Phase 1 will focus on a thorough review of filter options. Phase 2 will be the validation stage for the optimised filter design. Phase three will be the design, build and test of a three channel multiplexer. In phase three a detailed analysis of an 8 channel multiplexer using the developed filters and their performance will be conducted.
The activity is now complete. Hardware performance has exceeded the requirement. Significantly the multiplexer has undergone full power multicarrier band edge test in air with no test anomalies. COMDEV are proud to add this significant design to our product family.