The fast-growing commercial space market has made the Satellite Show an even more important gathering of space and associated ground equipment manufacturers. The RF and microwave company participation has grown fast over the last few years with beam steering arrays entering into the satellite communications market. While there has always been cable, filter and amplifier companies well represented, now there are more system and sub-systems companies than ever.
The participation this year seemed to be close to back to normal with a busy exhibition and conference with no mask or distancing requirements. Even many of the international companies attended such as the Turkish and Taiwan pavilions on the exhibition floor.
A couple of notable areas of activity and high interest were the continued evolution of antenna array companies doing mmWave beam steering systems and 3D printed components seem to be hitting their stride. On the mmWave antenna array front, there are now several companies doing meta material-based arrays with various approaches and the number of active phased array companies is still increasing. On the 3D printing front, there are now several companies making waveguides and antennas with the flexibility in shaping the components in fashion with no limitations on the manufacturing side. From microscopic-shaped materials to large waveguides with no connections between most of the parts.
Here are some of the companies we visited at the exhibition:
Arralis is a communication solutions provider to the satellite industry, offering cutting edge Uplink and Downlink Transceivers, Modules and MMICS in Ka-Band, W-Band and E-Band and coming soon, X-Band. Arralis recently announced that its K-band Surface Mount 10 W High Power Amplifier is now in full production and is available to order. Its high power makes it well suited for satellite communications, compatible transceivers, radar systems and mobile communications, providing an efficient and reliable solution. The surface mount power amplifier operates from 17 to 20.5 GHz and delivers a minimum of 10 W saturated output power with efficiency greater than 25 percent, associated large-signal gain of 20 dB and small-signal gain of 25 dB. The MMIC power amplifier comes with an integrated output power detector, and it is also available in a QFN ceramic package.
Ball Aerospace, in collaboration with diversified manufacturer Flex, started production on its Ku-Band and Ka-Band modular electronically steered antenna subarrays at the Flex site in Austin, Texas. By leveraging Flex’s global supply chain organization and experience manufacturing complex communications products, Ball will be able to provide these advanced satellite-based mobile communications solutions at an affordable price. The subarrays are the building blocks for Ball’s family of electronically steered antenna’s to address the growing SATCOM market. Ball and Stellar Blu Solutions are collaborating to bring a Series of Ku-band SATCOM terminals to the in-flight connectivity market. The terminals will provide highspeed, reliable broadband connectivity for regional, narrow and wide body aircraft. The terminals are optimized for LEO networks but are compatible with multi-orbit constellations including MEO, GEO and LEO configurations.
CAES was featuring many products such as their recently announced collaboration with Lattice Semiconductor to qualify and sell radiation-tolerant Lattice FPGAs for space and satellite applications. The collaboration will eable CAES to provide next generation on-orbit reconfigurable processing systems for future satellite constellations. The Certus™-NX-RT and CertusPro™-NX-RT FPGAs are built on the Lattice Nexus™ platform delivering class-leading small form factor, system bandwidth and power efficiency—consuming up to four times less power in comparison with similar devices. In addition, they are opening a new production line for 3D printed waveguide-based products in April at their Exeter, NH facility after announcing their collaboration with SWISSto12 last year.
CesiumAstro recently announced it has secured $60 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round, co-led by Airbus Ventures and Forever Ventures, with strategic participation from L3Harris Technologies. Returning investors include Kleiner Perkins, Lavrock Ventures, Franklin Templeton Blackhorse Fund and HEICO. CesiumAstro has raised nearly $90 million in capital since its founding in 2017. With this latest financing, Cesium will accelerate the growth of its core research, development and rapid manufacturing capabilities and expand its facilities both domestically and abroad.
Huber+Suhner was featuring their version of a flexible cable, the NANOBEND that is a new and flexible, high frequency coaxial cable assembly that is designed for use in low profile, internal, point-to-point interconnections between RF modules within communications systems. As the newest entrant found in the MINIBEND® family of standard flexible cables which offers the tightest bending radii, the NANOBEND™ brings the same capabilities in the smallest diameter available. NANOBEND™ was designed to meet SOSA, it provides plug-and-play capability with existing market solutions, making upgrades flexible and cost-effective. In addition, specially designed connectors offer end-to-end contacts that meet common industry standards, including SMA, SMP, SK, SMPM and SMPM-T.
Hughes Network Systems announced the award of an $18 million contract from the DoD to deploy a standalone 5G network at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state. The Other Transaction Agreement was issued through the Information Warfare Research Project consortium, a collaboration to engage industry and academia to develop and mature technologies in the field of information warfare that enhance Navy and Marine Corps mission effectiveness. Hughes will serve as the prime contractor connecting the base with a secure 5G network to support operations, maintenance and flight traffic management. The Hughes 5G network will use spectrum from DISH Wireless, the only carrier capable of providing the right combination of low band, mid band, and high band (mmWave) spectrum. This work is part of on-going DoD 5G experimentation led by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Isotropic Systems announced a strategic integration partnership with SpaceBridge that secures a fully integrated SpaceBridge waveform option enabling dynamic waveform selection and switching between MF-TDMA, ASCPC or SCPC, optimizing satellite resource usage. Isotropic System's first launch products will offer a powerful SpaceBridge option designed to unlock access to SpaceBridge platforms in a single fully integrated terminal. Isotropic also announced that their demand exceeds their production capacity for this year and into next year so it looking to expand capacity.
Keysight was featuring accelerating deployment of space missions through digitalization. As the space industry enables new applications on orbital platforms and interplanetary missions, the race to deploy new technologies and systems has accelerated. The effort to reduce risk, accelerate development and reduce costs has pulled the focus of engineering onto simulation and model-based engineering methods. These techniques require access to accurate physical descriptions of individual components that can only come from calibrated measurement. By making such data accessible and usable throughout a development workflow, engineers can speed up development from the outset. Model-based engineering enables system development that does not depend on hardware availability. It allows parallelism in development across teams and immunizes development from supply chain issues.
Kymeta and IP Access International announced a partnership agreement to co-develop and distribute optimized solutions using Kymeta terminals, broadband and LTE services to first responders across North America. This agreement to deliver optimized solutions will combine Kymeta’s resilient and cost-effective electronically steered flat panel technology with IP Access’ experience building public safety networks for mobility and remote connectivity where it has not previously existed. It will use coverage and bandwidth on a jointly developed, multi-layered broadband network optimized specifically for public safety customers. The Kymeta enabled solution allows communication and interoperability among devices, further extending the reach of the IP Access RedPHONE service even if there is an internet outage due to malware or denial-of-service attacks. Kymeta and OneWeb announced a distribution partner agreement to offer broadband connectivity services across the globe. The OneWeb LEO satellite network will give Kymeta customers access to highspeed, low-latency broadband connectivity while on the move or while stationary, anywhere in the world.
Maury Microwave recently acquired dBm Corporation so were exhibiting together. dBm recently introduced the ACE9600 that builds upon the SLE900 by adding payload impairment capability, synchronization of up to 16 channels, 12 tap multipath fading, and 600 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. The instrument can be configured with 1 to 4 channels. Link impairments include delay, Doppler, attenuation, phase offset, AWGN, frequency hopping, and multipath fading. Payload impairments include IMUX/OMUX emulation (amplitude and delay distortion), amplifer compression effects (AM/AM and AM/PM), phase noise, and spurious signals. Parameters can be set to fixed values in Static mode, or continuously changed in real time in Dynamic mode without phase discontinuities. Ephemeris data files are downloaded via an ethernet connection and stored internally in solid state memory. These dynamic files can have playback rates from 1 Hz to 1000 Hz, and can be executed single run, continuously looped, or single stepped.
Mini-Circuits is offering a large number of their products to the aerospace and defense markets. They recently expanded into the high frequency, high power amplifier market with their new Deer Park, NY facility. Here is an interview with their executives about this expansion.
Planar Monolithics Industries (PMI) was recently acquired by Quantic Electronics and is expanding into a larger facility in the August time frame. PMI is a leading supplier of high reliable, low-cost systems offering unique innovations in RF, microwave components, and integrated assemblies from DC to 63 GHz.
QuadSAT has worked alongside teams from the European Space Agency (ESA) ESOC mission control center to complete a measurement campaign of large antennas at Kiruna Earth Station. Using the QuadSAT UAS, this represents the first time a drone-based system has been used to measure a 15 m antenna and to perform tracking tests with it. ESA has been supporting and funding parts of the development of the QuadSAT Solution through the agency’s ARTES program. This campaign saw QuadSAT testing KIR-1 (15 m antenna) and KIR-2 (13 m antenna) at the earth station on behalf of electronically steered antenna’s ESOC center. Up until now it has only been possible with either satellite tracking, which requires a free satellite segment and coordination with the satellite operator, or with fixed RF beacons, which involve the building of a large structure and oftentimes prove to be a logistic challenge to use, while delivering limited testing possibilities. Using a drone-based system opens the possibility for more comprehensive testing.
Rohde & Schwarz had several demos including their new SMW200A that operates to 67 GHz. The R&S®SMW200A is the vector signal generator has flexibility, performance and intuitive operation and is well suited for generating complex, digitally modulated signals of high quality. It is a good fit for early research on 6G components and systems, development of wideband communication systems in general, the physical layer verification of 4G and 5G bases stations, chipsets, devices and aerospace and defense applications. With this extended frequency range and wide bandwidth, it is well suited for SATCOM applications too.
SWISSto12 announced the kick-off of the ARAMIS project (Active Reconfigurable telecommunication pAyload for MIcrogeo Satellites) to develop a next generation Ka-band active antenna in support of fully reconfigurable digital payloads. With co-funding support through the European Space Agency’s ARTES C&G program, the Center national d’études spatiales and the Swiss Space Office, theARAMISprogram is a multi-million Euro initiative that will develop a next generation Ka-band active antenna sub-system for GEO satellite missions.
Teledyne was featuring many of their divisions that participate in the satellite market. Teledyne Labtech is developing a very interesting high frequency PCB stack up using synthetic graphite layers to improve thermal handling. This material has four times better heat dissipation than copper (in x and y directions) so in one of their experiments a resistor with 6.7 W applied realized a 20 degree C cooler temperature using this material versus a normal PCB stack up. RF performance has been measured to be about the same as a normal stack up so could be close to production soon. Teledyne e2v recently released the first K-band direct conversion dual 12-bit DAC, direct C-band sampling quad 12-bit ADC, GHz speed microprocessors and DDR4 memory. Here is a link to their video demos on their latest innovations.
Times Microwave Systems was featuring their InstaBend Cables. InstaBend are flexible, coaxial microwave assemblies designed for interconnects between RF circuit cards, modules and enclosure panels. The cable can be bent very closely behind the connector, simplifying cable routing. Various cable assemblies are available all the way to 40 GHz. They were also featuring their high-density interconnect multi-port systems which were the subject of their recent article in the Microwave Journal Cable and Connector supplement.
TMY Technology announced a collaboration with DuPont, Chroma ATE Inc., and ADIVIC to supply millimeter-wave solutions for 5G/ B5G and satellite communication applications. They showcased the SATCOM electronic steering antenna and the user terminal test solution at the Taiwan Space Exhibition. TMYTEK announced the strategic partnership with DuPont™ Microcircuit and Components Materials (MCM), Chroma, and ADIVIC and a major wireless communication test and measurement solutions provider in Taiwan. TMYTEK is targeting the SATCOM market with a one-stop solution that is capable of design, fabrication and testing. In collaboration with DuPont™ MCM to demonstrate a 256-element commercial and defense-ready LTCC Ka-band antenna array that is 12 x 12 cm in size. In another demonstration, TMYTEK integrated a Chroma & ADIVIC semiconductor final test turnkey solution with handler, OTA test chamber, tri-temp control unit, digital & RF tester with an efficient codebook and rebuilt algorithm. The solution also includes TMYTEK’s up/ down-converter with a broadband frequency range of 10 to 50 GHz, which supports all SATCOM applications.
The Wireless Telcom Group was featuring several demos including Amplifier Noise Tolerance, 5G TDD Network Timing and Satellite Network Emulation for 4G/5G communications. They have put together different components from the various divisions to form these demos such as the Boonton SGX1000 Series Signal Generator, Noisecom UFX7000B Programmable Noise Generator, Holzworth HA706C Real-Time Phase Noise Analyzer, Boonton RTP5000 Series Real-Time Peak Power Sensor and CommAgility 5G gNodeB.