As featured in EE Times Europe – Robert Huntley
As RF components are crucial in any satellite, we asked Flann Microwave CEO Ian Burnage what changes the company has observed.
As a child born in the mid-fifties, I watched in awe the first live transatlantic television broadcast between the U.S. and the U.K. via the Telstar satellite 61 years ago, on July 11, 1962. This event marked the start of satellite broadcasting and established a whole market in designing, launching and operating satellites for a wide range of applications, from remote sensing to global positioning.
Shrinking satellites
Traditionally, satellites have been bulky and costly hardware items, with commercial communications satellites placed in geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) weighing up to 4,000 kg and costing approximately $ 200 million. While many heavyweight satellites are still launched today, an increasing number of satellites are no bigger than a shoe box. Over the past two decades, satellite sizes have shrunk considerably, leading NASA to establish a classification scheme for small satellites weighing less than 180 kg. Of these, CubeSats, a category of nanosatellites with a defined size and form factor and weighing between 1 and 10 kg, have proved extremely popular. Interest in CubeSats across Europe has led to the formation of the biennial European CubeSat Symposium, slated for this December in Leuven, Belgium.
Any change in market requirements can have a profound and long-term impact across the supply chain. As RF components are crucial in any satellite, EE Times Europe asked Flann Microwave (Bodmin, U.K.), a designer and manufacturer of precision passive RF, microwave and millimetric products, what changes the company has observed.
Attitudes shift on risk
“The market is going up in frequency, and there is also a change in perspective,” said Flann CEO Ian Burnage. “Higher frequencies offer an increase in information density and bandwidth, something that continues to drive the market. The change in perspective we notice is that rather than putting up one satellite, customers are putting up a plethora of less expensive ones. What we think this has done is change the risk profile. Customers appear to be happier to accept the fact that some of the satellites will fail.”
According to the Nanosats Database, 4,300 nanosats and CubeSats have been launched to date, with an additional 2,080 nanosats forecast for launch from 2023 to 2027. Commercial space organizations like SpaceX and government-funded agencies like NASA now offer competitively priced shared nanosat launch services. For example, SpaceX’s latest dedicated shared launch, on June 12, launched 70 nanosats. Such services, together with the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, have significantly lowered the costs of designing and launching a nanosat.
Burnage agreed that the cost model has changed, stating, “It’s mainly because of the timescales. GEO satellites used to go up with a 15-year life, and some are still going for 20-plus years. Now their lifespans can be one or two years, which has completely changed the business model.
“The change in the business model also changes the business structure, and because timescales are much shorter, it attracts may more startups. Traditionally, GEO satellites might involve a five- to 10-year development plan, but today, if you take longer than a year to get a satellite up, you’ve missed the boat.”
Waveguide still the best transfer medium
Waveguide continues to play a vital role in transferring microwave signals from the antenna to the receiver front end and for moving power from the transmitter’s final stage, even for space-constrained nanosats, said Burnage. “Waveguide keeps surviving; you cannot beat it. It offers low loss, low noise, and accommodates high power levels. Managing the power budgets and the efficiency of any satellite is a major consideration.”
Burnage illustrated the need for efficiency by comparing one of Flann’s microwave switches with a solid-state alternative. “Our new range of millimetric waveguide switches suits satellites using frequencies in the range of 28 to 500 GHz and offers a 0.1-dB typical insertion loss, [which equates to a] 2.3% power loss,” he said. “Compare that to a solid-state switch with a 6-dB insertion loss, [equating to a] 75% power loss. All power losses create a problem with radiating and cooling the satellite, since you can’t conduct it out into space.”
Waveguide manufacturing advances
Flann’s latest seamless waveguide can operate up to 1.1 THz and is available with thin or ultra-thin wall thicknesses. As operating frequencies continue to advance, Burnage noted, waveguide dimensions are shrinking to an extent that challenges current manufacturing methods. “We see no limit to the frequencies at which waveguide can operate- it’s still your lowest-loss medium- but it’s a question of solving the technical challenges of the manufacturer,” he said, “3D printing is possible, and we don’t know where it could go, but what’s holding it back is that it is ridiculously expensive for small quantities.”
As a result, the CEO said, Flann continues to “follow manufacturing capabilities and how new materials develop, with some turning out to be game changers.”
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