Thorium Space, a company in the advanced satellite communication systems sector, has officially started work on a joint project in cooperation with Teledyne e2v Semiconductors, a global company in the field of advanced technologies used in the aerospace and defence sector.
The fact that such a recognized company with a global reach decided to cooperate with an emerging Polish company is indicative of the leading-edge solution proposed by Thorium Space. Work will focus on the definition and development of state-of-the-art key elements of an advanced communication payload that will offer more efficient use of the spectrum and satellite payload resources.
This will lead to genericity of the hardware with the ambition of ultimately reducing costs and production time. The scope of application opens the door to the so-called intelligent telecommunication payloads, resulting in unprecedented operational flexibility. Technically, the so-called full digital beamforming (DBF) creates transmitting and receiving beams directly in the digital domain, working on the full Ka-Band (17.7 to 20.2 GHz and 27.5 to 31.0 GHz).
This is a game changer in the satellite market. The system provides scalability and flexibility and applications developed and updated in orbit, which is another innovation. The first solutions will be available on the market in 2024.
As part of the cooperation, Teledyne E2V will deliver the elements which are jointly specified with Thorium Space, which will be incorporated in DBF Ka Payload—a full digital communications payload along with the associated processing resources, offering a powerful solution for geostationary applications with 15 years of continuous operation and adapting to the market needs.