ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10735
Open Date: 08/07/2021 10:02 CEST
Closing Date: 27/10/2021 13:00 CEST

The goal of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a scaled engineering model of a highly integrated microwave solid statepower amplifier with adjustable output power level, operating at Ka-band (17.7-20.2GHz). The developed amplifier shall demonstrate enhanced back-off efficiency over a 10 dB dynamic range, with stable gain and high linearity.Targeted Improvements: Constant efficiency over 10 dB output back-off and 10% efficiency improvement over the state of the art. Description: Future satellite communicationsystems, with the introduction of the fifth-generation (5G) standard, will support an increased number of applications, including broadcasting, mobile devices, fixed networks and smart sensors, all continuously collecting and exchanging large amounts of data through a high frequency satellite link. The use of active antenna arrays in high throughput satellites poses several challenges to the design of the transmitting section, especially the power amplifier. This is the most power-consuming element of the antenna array, so major effort is required to improve its efficiency. The increasing complexity of modulation schemes, variable centre frequencies and higher baseband signal bandwidths require the amplifier to operate in a highly efficient way over a wide frequency bandwidth of at least 2.5 GHz and over a wide range of output power levels. Such amplifiers should enable the use of a different modulation andcoding schemes, during varying weather, without decreasing the payload efficiency. This cannot be accomplished with traditional power amplifier architectures. Variable load impedance implementation of amplifiers, along with novel wideband output combiner techniques, have the potential to achieve the desired bandwidth. Improved linearity could be achieved based on extended resonance of the input power divider matching network. The activity shall cover the detailed design and development of a multi stage load modulation amplifier and/or an adaptive power supply at Ka-band, allowing the output power to be adjusted over a large dynamic range. The topology of the amplifier shall be such that the power added efficiency remains constant over a 10 dB back-off from the saturation point and over the specified bandwidth. A scaled engineering model will be manufactured and critical functions tested. Electrical tests shall be carried out on both chip and module level. Thermal performance and assembly production tolerances will be investigated.

Directorate: Directorate Telecom Integrated Applica
Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Claudia Ria Piesche
Initiating Service: TIA-TT
IP Measure: N/A
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-II-RF Equipment
Products Keywords: 2-L-2/3/4.1-b-Analog: Signal amplifiers