RF Systems on Chip and Mixed-Signal Front-End Devices: Game-Changing RF Technologies for Space Applications

• Published in: IEEE Microwave Magazine
• Main Author: Budroweit, Jan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2023
• Subjects: Avioniksysteme; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://elib.dlr.de/192969/; https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10004808

Growing interest in the commercialization of space (NewSpace) is leading to increased acceptance of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics and thus enabling use in space of the latest technologies developed for terrestrial applications. This opens new capabilities for applications in space missions. RF communication via satellites has been established for decades; traditionally used for military applications, it is becoming increasingly important for commercial users. Today, global connectivity and access to the Internet has never been so important, and the demand for worldwide connectivity increases significantly each year. Space-based Internet access is especially important for areas with poor terrestrial infrastructure, such as Africa and Antarctica. There are already geostationary-Earth orbit (GEO)-stationary-located satellites available such as Inmarsat or low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations like Iridium, which provide almost-global access to the Internet, but they are either very expensive or have low data rates and long latencies, so they are not very attractive. New solutions with high data rates, low latencies, and affordable fees are currently in development, such as StarLink, with its giga constellation [1] , [2] , and Amazon’s Project Kuiper [3] , [4] , [5] . So it is true: there really has been a change in the market with the NewSpace Era. With NewSpace, or in other words, the commercialization of space, traditional space missions with high-quality assurance requirements, very long design and manufacturing times, and extraordinary costs may become obsolete at a certain point, at least when it comes to commercial services like satellite-based Internet access. To decrease the lead time and costs of such missions, satellite designers and manufacturers need to rely on commercially available electronics, namely, COTS devices, which are usually much cheaper and have better performance and shorter lead times compared to space-qualified parts. In terms of performance, COTS devices have great ...