We are pleased to announce that the project SUMO - “SUrface MOuntable Filters for Frequency Converters”- was successfully completed a few days ago with very positive acknowledgments from both ESA and Thales Alenia Space Italia (the prime contractor).
About the project…
SUMO project enabled the development of L-band and C-band surface mountable filters to be integrated into the RF module of frequency converter equipment. The LTCC technology has been selected for the realization of the filters, and it demonstrated to provide high RF performance as well as a 20% mass and footprint saving with respect to the state of the art.
Application…
The main application of the developed filters in L and C-band is within frequency converters of new generation for flexible multibeam capacitive payloads that are used around a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to convert the RF input signal to IF before the DSP and to convert the IF output DSP signal to the required RF payload output frequency plan. In this context the filters perform the Anti-aliasing and Nyquist filtering function of the useful signal.
Results…
L-band and C-band surface mountable filters have been developed in LTCC technology and tested for IF converters in on-board space applications. The devices show excellent performance, in-line with the full-wave simulations and the end-user specifications.
Thanks to this project, the LTCC technology with Ferro tape A6M has been optimized to provide very low loss and high reliability filters: the space compatibility tests showed negligible sensitivity of the filters to temperature variations up to 65° degrees, demonstrating a filter TRL of 5.
High compactness, improved RF performance, low-cost and easy integration with planar and monolithic technology are the key features of the L and C band filters developed in SUMO project.
More info about the project here!
Many thanks to ESA, to our prime partner Thales Alenia Space and to RF Microtech staff. We are very proud of the hard work done by the Project Team and their dedication to making every project a great success!
For more technical and commercial information about the product please contact us!