A Ka-Band Receiver Front-End With Noise Injection Calibration Circuit for CubeSats Inter-Satellite Links

IEEE Access

Federico Alimenti¹  Paolo Mezzanotte¹  Giordano Cicioni¹  Guendalina Simoncini¹  Raffaele Salvati¹  Luca Roselli¹  Valentina Palazzi¹  Mario Fragiacomo²  Anna Gregorio²  Simone Pauletto²  Federico Dogo² 

[1] Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy;PicoSaTs s.r.l., Trieste, Italy;

关键词: Ka-band;    microwave receivers;    noise injection;    noise calibration;    CubeSats;    LEO to GEO links;   

DOI  :  10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3000675

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This paper proposes a Ka-band receiver front-end for future CubeSats Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geostationary (GEO) inter-satellite links. The receiver is able to support very high data rates (up to 100 Mbit/s) in Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) when in the line of sight of a GEO satellite that is equipped with a steerable 70-cm antenna and transmitting a 25-W signal. The originality of the proposed approach is twofold. First we will demonstrate the receiver feasibility based on a class of miniaturized and low-cost microwave integrated circuits, currently available on the market. In particular, our receiver is based on a novel combination of integrated Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNA) with an image rejection filter, the latter exploiting the Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology. An optimization of the via placement proved to be able to reduce the need for shielding apparatuses, thus simplifying the mechanics and reducing mass, volume and hardware costs. Secondly, we will propose a noise injection circuit capable of measuring and calibrating the receiver gain, also during in-orbit operation. Self testing capabilities are particularly relevant for CubeSats because the usage of commercial components poses serious reliability issues.

【 授权许可】

Unknown