Compact, Highly Integrated Front-End Module for Airborne W/V band SATCOM Applications

ABSTRACT: QuinStar proposes to build a small and light-weight radio frequency (RF) front-end module to be used in an airborne W/V band SATCOM transceiver. This front-end module consists of two paths: a transmit path and a receive path. In the transmit path, a designated intermediate frequency (IF) input is up-converted to the 81-86 GHz uplink signal. In the receive path, it accepts a 71-76 GHz downlink signal and produces an IF signal at the IF port for further processing. The intent is to build this front-end with its size and weight suitable to be mounted on an airborne gimbal by doing without W- and V-band rotary joints. In this way, one of the troublesome issues which face system integrators in the development of airborne transceivers can be eliminated. BENEFIT: The key W/V band transceiver technologies developed for this program can benefit future DoD, NASA, and upcoming commercial satellite communication systems. For DoD, the results of this SBIR research topic can be directly applied to future MILSATCOM programs. For example, Air Force has an ongoing W/V band Satellite Communications Experiments (WSCE) program using the same frequency allocation plan. This is a strong indication that the proposed work is completely in sync with the trend of future space terminal and communication link development. NASA and other space agencies are involved in a program called "Integrated Interplanetary Network. W-band is one of the main frequency bands this program plan to use to relay data from landers, rovers, and satellites back to Earth. Commercially, the data crowding at the current Ku/Ka band satellites is well documented. ESA has been experimenting Q/V satellite link systems (AlphaSat for example.) Several W-band projects, such as DAVID Mission and WAVE Project, are designed to perform preliminary tests for the commercial use of the W-band. The fact that FCC allows non-exclusive use of these bands by private sectors will speed up the arrival of W/V band satellite era. This research will benefit these and other upcoming opportunities.