ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10693
Open Date: 11/02/2022 17:05 CEST
Closing Date: 06/05/2022 13:00 CEST

The objective of this activity is to develop, manufacture and test low loss (quality factor > 4000) and temperature stable surface acoustic wave filters for L- and S-band applications. This activity aims to spin-in 4G and 5G surface acoustic wave technologies to the space industry. Targeted Improvements: At least a factor of two improvement of quality factor and temperature stability in comparison to today’s space surface acoustic wave filters. Description: Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters offer a significantly reducedsize and weight compared to other filter technologies, such as cavity and planar filters, and are employed in payload receivers andfrequency converters. However, standard SAW technology suffers from limited quality factor and bandwidth and poor thermal stability, which prevents its wider use. The issue of temperature sensitivity can be compensated partially by additional temperature shift components, but this negatively affects the coupling efficiency and the final performance of the filter. Various technical advances are ongoing in the frame of 4G and 5G terrestrial network implementation. Recent developments in advanced engineered substrates suchaspiezo-on-insulator combining oriented lithium tantalate single crystal layers and silicon, sapphire or even quartz, open the possibility of developing high performance and integrated SAW filter components. It has been shown that these technologies could provide high Q factor values with compensation of temperature effects. The technology can also offer semiconductor compatibility, enablinghigh integration of RF front-ends based on system-on-chip or system-in-package technologies. The goal of this activity is to take advantage of the progress achieved for terrestrial applications and to spin in, design, manufacture and test L- and S-band temperature compensated, very high Q factor SAW filters for space applications. The performance will be quantified by testing at wafer and packaged device levels. Procurement Policy: C2: Activities are in open competition, where a significant participation of non-LSIs is requested. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”. Footnote: On Delegation Request activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one National Delegation.

Directorate: Directorate Telecom Integrated Applica
Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Nicole Rinaudo
Initiating Service: TIA-TT
IP Measure: C2
Prog. Reference: E/0534-01G – CC-AT 4.0.1
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EL+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE
Technology Keywords: 6-E-III-RF Devices
Products Keywords: 2-L-2/3/4.1-m-Digital: Switching BB