ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10269
Open Date: 15/04/2020
Closing Date: 10/06/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.1ED.03
Prog. Ref.: Technology Developme
Budget Ref.: E/0901-01 – Technology Developme
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL+EE+HU
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Electronics / EEE Components / Monolithic Microcircuits (including MMICs)
Technology Domains: EEE Components and Quality / EEE Component Technologies / RF Microwave and Millimetre Wave Components
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Electrical Department
Division: Data Syst & Microelectronics Division
Contract Officer: Erkelens-Sickinger, Franziska
Industrial Policy Measure: C1 – Activities in open competition limited to the non-Larg…
Last Update Date: 15/04/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT) are an enabling technology for a wide range of space applications in Telecommunication, Earth observation, navigation and science requiring high power and/or low noise amplification. At the present, these processes inEurope are limited to Ku-band (0.25um process) and the required components from the US and Japan fall under export restrictions. There is an urgent need for making a competitive (in terms of performance and price) European version covering applications at higher frequencies between Ka- and V-band. Examples of applications include solid-state power amplifiers (SSPA) and robust low noise amplifiers (LNA) for mm-wave payloads with Earth observation and telecom applications, e.g. Ka-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Ka-/Q-/V-band receiver front-ends, Ka-/Q-/V-band high data rate downlinks, Ka-/Q-/V-band Inter Satellite Links (ISL) and high power LO sources.This activity continues a previous TDE activity by further developing and performing preliminary space evaluation of 0.15-0.1mGaN process on a fully industrial manufacturing line. Pending the results of this activity a full ESCC space evaluation of the process can be launched.This activity encompasses the following tasks:- Industrial technology capability assessment and preparation for evaluation- Design of evaluation test vehicles (Technology Characterization Vehicle, Dynamic Evaluation Circuit, Representative Integrated Circuit) and definition of a pre-evaluation test plan- Wafer manufacturing- Evaluation testing- Results assessmentProcurement 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”.