W Band Multi Application Payload for Space and Multiplanetary Missions

The increasing demand for frequency locations with high bandwidth to satisfy the growing satellite communications applications made it necessary to explore higher and higher frequency ranges. W-band (75–110 GHz) can be considered as the new frontier of satellite communications.

Based on the experience gained by Oerlikon Contraves in the development and in the operation of a W band radar sensors operating at 95 GHz for Airport Surface Movement Control and Guidance and on W band point to point ground communication link modular “core” integrated modules based on MMIC technology are described on this paper. The main targets to reach for each “core” module are the minimisation of mass, volume and the modularity in order to have the possibility of use it in payloads that can be embarked on different platforms (nanosatellites, microsatellites, satellites, rovers on Moon and Mars. …) or used on ground for different applications including security.

The personalisation of the payload will be done by the antennas, the HPA and the baseband processing depending if the application will be a high rate, high speed communication link or a beacon for propagation measurement or a radar (traditional, SAR, interferometer. …)