ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9682
Open Date: 22/05/2019
Closing Date: 22/07/2019 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 18.1TT.79
Prog. Ref.: ScyLight
Budget Ref.: E/0502-01A – ScyLight
Special Prov.: DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+CH+GB+IE+AT+LU+CZ+RO+CA+NO
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Optical Communication / Optical Comm ¿ BB / Telescopes / Launchers / Avionics / On-Board Computers / *See Software
Technology Domains: Onboard Data Systems / Payload Data Processing / System Technologies for Payload Data Processing
Establishment: ECSAT
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Technologies and Products Division
Contract Officer: Beardsell, Andrea
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 22/05/2019
Update Reason: Tender issue

The objective of this activity is to develop, manufacture and test an Engineering Model of a Photonic Lantern Receiver, reducing the complexity of the receiver for optical communication terminals by eliminating the complex pointing and tracking system (tip-tilt mirror) that is otherwise needed to efficiently collect the light onto a fast photodetector.Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology development not existing today in Europe, which will allow the complexity to be reduced by an order of magnitude without compromising performance.Description:Current optical communication terminals require tip/tilt tracking mechanisms to suppress image motion and to keep the optical beam on the detector, which has a very small diameter typically in the order of 50 micron. For data ratesof around 1 Gbps, image motion cannot be compensated without a suitable tip/tilt tracking mechanism. A solution to this issue wouldbe to use a photonic lantern. This demultiplexes light from a large core multi-mode fibre (MMF) into multiple single-mode fibres (SMF). The diameter of the MMF is large enough to cover image motion as well as spreading of the incoming light, thus a tip/tilt tracking mechanism is no longer required. The insertion loss of the photonic lantern would need to be very low and the SMFs would be eachconnected to data detectors.In this activity, an Engineering Model of a Photonic Lantern Receiver will be developed, manufactured andtested, including a demonstration that a tip/tilt mechanism is no longer necessary.