ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10443
Open Date: 22/12/2020
Closing Date: 22/02/2021 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.112.18
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Element 1 Dev
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Element 1 Dev
Special Prov.: IT+FR+DE
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / Ground Station / RF equipment / Transmitter and Receiver assemblies, Frequency converters, …
Technology Domains: Ground Station Systems and Networks / Ground Station System / TT&C, Radar and Optical Signal & Data Processing / Ground Station Systems and Networks / Ground Station System / Ground TT&C and Payload Data Reception Antenna Systems / RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / RF Technologies and Equipment / RF Devices / RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / RF Technologies and Equipment / RF Equipment
Establishment: ESOC
Directorate: Directorate of Operations
Department: Ground Systems Eng. & Innovation Dept.
Division: Ground Station Engineering Division
Contract Officer: Hurtz, Anne Maria
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 22/12/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

Objectives:The objective of the activity is to design and manufacture a water cooler for 5-10kW X-Band solid-state power amplifiers (SSPA).Description:Presently in ESA Deep Space Antennas X-Band uplink capability is achieved by different power amplifiers: Solid State Power Amplifiers (400W), Low Power Amplifiers (2kW) and High Power Amplifiers (20kW). X-Band Low Power Amplifiers (X-LPA)and X-Band High Power Amplifiers (X-HPA) are Klystron based amplifiers while the X-Band Solid State Power Amplifiers (X-SSPA) are amplifiers based on solid state GaAs technology. Both X-LPAs and X-SSPAs are air cooled while X-HPAs are water cooled (deionized water).In order to improve the reliability of the present 2kW LPAs, limited by the use of klystron technology (single point of failure)andcooling system based on a powerful air turbine, a new amplifier would be needed, based on a combination of replaceable solid state amplifiers modules, e.g. in GaN or GaAs technology, providing higher power efficiency and reliability. The new amplifier shall though be capable of at least 5kW output power, extending missions coverage to power levels previously covered only by the klystron based20kW HPAs .The SSPA shall implement water-cooling allowing for better temperature stabilization (therefore frequency stability), quieter operations, more efficiency (primarily at high altitude) and reduced overall size, in comparison to air-cooling.Preferably,a N + 1 modularity concept shall be implemented to meet the 5kW output power requirement with only N power modules. Based on this design, graceful RF power degradation is therefore achieved in case of failure of one or more modules.The development of the 5kWamplifier will allow reduction in running costs being both the present 400W SSPA and 2kW LPA replaced by only the new 5kW SSPA.It is intended to further extend in the future the output power range up to 10kW, thus the preliminary design of the 10kW amplifier will also be performed in the frame of this activity.The main tasks of the activity are:- Design a modular water cooled X-Band SSPA based on high efficiency semiconductor technology operating in the frequency band 7145 7235 MHz- Manufacture and test a prototype able to deliver at least 5kW output power- Design an X-Band SSPA able to deliver 10kW output power.Deliverables:A prototype.