ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10606
Open Date: 17/03/2021 00:00 CET
Closing Date: 25/06/2021 13:00 CEST

Objective: The objective is to develop a high-power and high-efficient optical booster amplifier, compatible with WDM operation at 1550nm wavelength range. Two versions, with different output optical power and wall-plug efficiency requirements, are to be developed to address operation under space and ground environmental conditions. Targeted Improvements: Strategic component not available inESA’s Member States nor in Cooperating/Associated States. Such component is key for the wavelength selection trade-off for future missions implementing optical inter-satellite links and optical space-ground links at data rates in excess of 100Gbps. Description: With the increasing data rate demands and longer distance communications, optical booster amplifiers (OBA) need to increase the output optical power while at the same time improving the overall electro-optical conversion efficiency. At 1550nm, OBA for space operationwith 10Watts are under development in ESA’s Member States, while commercial available OBA for ground applications reach 30Watts(not used in terrestrial high-capacity networks, as the output optical power level of OBA for such application is constraint to a few Watts due to non-linearity effects in the optical fibre). WDM operation at 10Watts output optical power has been demonstrated,but 30Watt OBA operate at single carrier amplification mode (e.g., no WDM operation). Wall-plug efficiency values up to 10% are reported for ground equipment. Future missions aim at establishing optical inter-satellite links and optical space-ground links at datarates in excess of 100Gbps (e.g., HydRON aims even at a Terabit-per-second optical transport network in the sky). To fulfil Terabit-per-second demands, the required output optical power for the space and the ground OBA could reach up to 750W and 5kW respectively (depending on the transmitter aperture diameter and the effectiveness of the turbulence compensation countermeasures). These opticalpower levels are to be provided either by a single OBA amplifying simultaneously all the optical WDM channels, or split among several OBA amplifying in parallel a reduced number of the optical WDM channels (which need then to be multiplexed at the output by meansof a high-power optical multiplexer). This activity shall develop a space-based (single spatial mode) OBA with >100W output opticalpower,>20% wall-plug efficiency and >25 optical WDM channels, compatible with operation under space environmental conditions. Inaddition,this activity shall develop a ground-based (single spatial mode) OBA with >1kW output optical power, >10% wall-plug efficiency and >25 optical WDM channels, which can operate in ground environmental conditions.

Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Contracts Officer: Florence Odette Jeanne Glandieres
Initiating Service: TIA-TIS
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/0534-05A – OP-Other Act. Prod.
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EL+ES+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE
Technology Keywords: 17-A-III-Laser Oscillators and Amplifiers
Products Keywords: 2-G-1-a-Optical terminals

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