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The Space Industry by satsearch - sharing stories about the businesses taking us into orbit.
We delve into the opinions and expertise of the people behind the commercial space companies of today, who could become the household names of tomorrow. Find out more about the companies and technologies discussed on this show at satsearch.com.
Hywel: Hello everybody, I'm your
host Howell Curtis, and I'd like to
welcome you to The Space Industry by
Satsurge, where we share stories about
the companies taking us into orbit.
In this podcast, we delve into
the opinions and expertise of the
people behind the commercial space
organizations of today who could
become the household names of tomorrow.
Before we get started with the
episode, remember you can find out
more information about the suppliers,
products and innovations that are
mentioned in this discussion on the global
marketplace for the space at satsurge.
com.
Hello there and welcome to
today's episode of the Space
Industry Podcast by SatSearch.
I'm joined today by some returning
guests on the podcast, Michael Seidel
and Adrian Helvig from Global Electronics
Manufacturer and a SatSearch trusted
supplier, Texas Instruments, a name
you're, you must be familiar with if
you've listened to this podcast, but
also if you're anything to do with the
space industry or a wide range of other
industries where Texas Instruments or
TI as it's commonly known operates.
It's great to have you both.
Back on the show, really really interested
to hear more about the the work that
tech, that TI is doing in space.
There's always a lot of information
presented by the company about the
different applications and components
and and how they can be used to
improve missions that TI shares.
So this is great.
Now today we're going to be talking phased
array antennas and how they can improve
both performance and flexibility, which
is, or versatility, which is increasingly
important in modern space missions, as
we're seeing teams professionalizing and
services, trying to try to get more value
and do more with the equipment and the
resources and the people that they have.
Yeah, I'm really excited to
get into this topic today.
Now, we'll start by setting the
scene a little bit, many people in
the space industry are increasingly
aware of how congested the RF
spectrum has become and is becoming.
And there's a few
different reasons for this.
I wondered if Adrian potentially
could, explain why this problem has
come about and what RF engineers
are doing or can do to mitigate it.
Adrien: Yes, sure.
Welcome everybody.
Yeah.
So I will be happy to answer that one.
So the RF spectrum has become very
crowded for several reasons, really.
And the fact is we need to, More
data and faster speeds, right?
So the demand for available
spectrum simply has increased.
In addition to that, there are also
many new application in services.
Like for example, phone services, internet
services, or air observation satellites,
like weather satellites, for example,
defense communication, those applications.
I using up more of the spectrum.
And let me also add one additional
point here about the low earth orbit
satellites, because on the one hand,
you can think those are offering more
data transmission opportunities for your
system, but at the same time they are
also creating another problem, right?
Because those satellites
are moving very quickly.
Relative to ground.
And this makes really hard to maintain
the stable communication link.
Yeah.
And now to deal with all those
issues, engineers, developers,
they are developing new solutions.
And to be very honest with you,
the one of most promising is the
use of phased array antennas.
So actually our topic today,
and this antennas can direct the
communication beam electronically.
without needing mechanical parts to move.
And this allows really for
better use of available spectrum
by sending multiple signals at
different angles and frequencies.
And at the same time, this technology
helps also to reduce the interference
and improves overall system efficiency.
And In using the RF spectrum.
So in summary, by using the phased
array antennas, the space industry can
really benefit and handle the anyway,
very crowded RF spectrum much better.
Okay.
Hywel: Fantastic.
Yeah.
It makes sense as we've seen the
industry scale in that these, there's
some very valuable areas of the spectrum
are under increasing demand, but yeah,
when you explain issues like the.
Leo satellites there, though,
the how hard it is to maintain
those stable communication links.
I think that really puts
this issue into perspective.
And as you say, the phased array
antenna technology is seen as a
really promising solution for this.
As I mentioned in the intro to
the show let's Get into more
detail on this technology.
Now, as far as I understand, phaser
antennas bring two big benefits.
The increased versatility because of,
as you mentioned, the digital beam
forming or the electronic steering.
And that I believe they can enable
greater bandwidth because they
can operate with narrower beams.
So I wonder if we could discuss this first
point and, please correct my inaccuracies
if they are there, but yeah, I wondered
if Michael, if you could explain what
digital beamforming is and what benefits
it can bring to space applications.
Michael: Yes, I'm very happy to attend.
This is definitely not trivial to
understand, but let me give it a try.
Imagine you have several antennas,
not only one antenna, but you have
several antennas next to each other,
and you really put them equally spaced.
One.
next to the other, right?
And they form an array of antenna.
That's either a linear array in only
one dimension, but they're next to
each other, or you put them in a
rectangular format and have them in two
dimensions spaced next to each other.
But you have multiple antennas
and all these antennas, they
send the very same signal, right?
They just add up, they accumulate and
form altogether a, now a a radiation
characteristic with a single beam
but a more focused beam than if
you have only a single element.
So that's the first thing we have to put
there to get a more narrow, more focused
beam, because you're accumulating the
characteristics of multiple antennas.
together.
And the second one, and that's
actually a pretty interesting even
fascinating fact happening there.
What people do now is they put a
delay where you're saying all antenna
elements send the same signal.
They do send the same signal, but each
one a little bit later than the other one.
So you put this constant delay on
each one of those next to each other.
And then the interesting
thing, what happens then is
then the angle of radiation.
It changes its direction, like
the very front is moving in
a different direction then.
And really controllable by the delay
you apply to each of these elements.
And that makes now this antenna
steered purely based on electronics.
So no mechanics involved.
And that is of course a big benefit
that if you don't have to send
many mechanics to space, that
is of course a major advantage.
And now the.
The next level of interest is like
you have, you can have this steering
of the beam you're radiating.
You can differentiate between frequencies.
So you have one carrier frequency
getting one set of delays and
the other carrier frequency
getting a different set of delays.
And with that, you have now two
beams of different frequency
pointing at different locations.
And this is where you can now put groups
on ground, user groups on ground together
and give this one group one carrier
frequency in one direction and the
other group another carrier frequency.
And this is how you divide up the
spectrum very effectively and with
a very focused theme where you
accomplished on the best signal to noise.
ratio on these user groups.
Hywel: Really interesting.
So it's almost as if you're operating
with two different antennas physically
pointing in two different directions,
but you aren't, you're using the same
one that's electronically pointing
the beam in different directions.
Interesting.
And then What about the achieving
the increased data rate by
operating with narrow beams?
How does this aspect of things work?
Adrien: Yeah, so that, that's
really another aspect of using
those phased array antennas.
Let me try to explain.
Achieving those increased data rates
by operating with narrow beams, Works
because this better focused antenna beams
ensure that the transmitted signal arrives
at the receiver with greater strength.
And when the signal is
stronger, it improves so called
signal to noise ratio, right?
And this means there is less interference
and the received signal is clearer.
And this clearer signal allows
simply for higher data throughput.
As more information can be transmitted
accurately and efficiently.
So thinking about this, those narrow beams
are really essential in, in boosting data
rates and and making the communication
link more reliable and robust.
Hywel: I see.
That makes sense.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah, got it.
So we have these, we have this technology,
the phased array antenna technology.
It provides these certain benefits around
increasing the data rate and so on.
We mentioned that the RF spectrum
is, Gary, particularly crowded.
Therefore, this kind of technology
is needed, but to bring it to home,
to the so that space engineers and
mission designers really understand
what value this technology brings.
I wonder if you could
give some examples of.
different space applications and
services that would benefit the most from
using phased array antenna technology
and why that would be the case.
Adrien: Yeah.
Yeah.
So there are really many and I
can try to list some of them.
In general, phased array antennas would
really greatly benefit in would greatly
benefit any space application that
relies on high data transmission, right?
So the best example here is
telecommunication services.
Why?
Yeah, because they need high data rates.
Another example could be
rather imaging applications.
Those application would also benefit
from this because they need very strong
focused beams for accurate imaging.
And there is also another
aspect I wanted to talk here.
Those more focused beams helps also
to reduce the transmit power, right?
And this makes the whole
system much more efficient.
And now in the beginning, we were
talking about the challenges of low
earth orbit satellites and their
rapid movement relative to ground.
So now with the phased array
antennas, They can quickly adjust
to compensate for those rapid
movements and this ensure again the
reliable communication link, right?
So overall, those phased array antennas
improve your performance, your efficiency
and reliability across really a wide
range of space application and services.
Hywel: Okay.
Makes sense.
But of course.
We always try and address this when we
talk about space engineering, missions
in space are all about compromising.
You mentioned, as you mentioned
earlier, the, we can't send
mechanics into space to fix things.
There are unique limitations
placed upon any technology.
because of the extremes of
the operating environment.
So my next question is, how is the
swap C budget of a mission affected
by using phase array antennas?
And what can engineers do to
deal with the, I would guess,
inevitable trade offs that would
occur by using these technologies?
Michael: Yeah.
Yeah.
I think first off, I think you suspected
already looking at the number of
elements, the, Amount of electronics
and the cost and the power budget and
the size and the weight all goes up.
So your swap or the size, weight and power
and cost budget is that the first plan
compromised, but what you get in return
is, of course, the amount of data rates
and the amount of data rate per user.
You accomplish with it, and
that really matters, right?
And this is where the ratio
improves a lot, right?
So it's absolutely worthwhile
going there in this direction
by increasing the data rate.
And we said it before, right?
No need for mechanical steering
is, of course, also very important.
Good benefit, important benefit,
and it's super fast, right?
As we move over ground very fast that
is where these electronically steered
antennas help us very much with
the big challenge that is probably
will always be around with us.
We put a lot of electronics
in a very dense area.
And that is where the challenge is.
And of course, the amount of electronics
and the complexity increases the cost.
But this is where the good news
is that meanwhile, the electronics
industry and semiconductor industry
has come up with solutions that
really make it now possible to come.
at reasonable heat development and
reasonable cost, so we can really
enable these phased array antennas
now also for satellite missions.
Hywel: Fantastic.
Yeah.
Thanks for addressing those the
balance that needs to be struck.
The heat generation is one thing,
but as we're seeing Something
of a trend towards larger form
factor systems in the industry.
This is partially mitigated because
obviously larger systems are able
to deal with heat generation,
waste heat in different ways.
And also then you can cope with
more complex engineering, sometimes
more easily in a larger system.
Excuse me, but yeah, the balance
that needs to be struck in terms of
increasing the SWOT budget is key.
And I, as you highlighted, Michael, the.
the aim is to get a great balance of
cost for performance, not absolute cost.
So yeah, if you're, if the cost at
which you're developing data creating,
generating data, sorry, is lower, and the
data quality is higher based on the same
unit, then you're in a good position.
But you also highlighted the complexity
involved in the engineering here.
As a provider of these sort of systems,
how does Texas Instruments help engineers
or how can you help engineers to deal
with this complexity and incorporate
phased array antennas into designs
and development of space missions?
Adrien: Yeah, so we are really
offering a wide range of solutions
here to help engineers to, to use
this technology in their designs.
Let me talk about some of them.
Obviously we need to start with high speed
ADCs, DACs and analog frontends, right?
And TI is offering really advanced
ADCs and DACs with high data rates and
wide bandwidths at the same time with
lower power consumption, lower noise.
You need those data converters
for capturing and transmitting.
And to be honest, sometimes
even for processing the high
frequency signals accurately.
And I'm thinking here about devices
like the ADC12DJ5200 SP for receiving a
part, but also on the transmit part, for
example, the DAC39RF10 SP can be used.
Now, if the customers prefer
more integrated solution.
We can also offer so
called analog front ends.
Those products simply integrate several
of those ADCs and DACs into one device.
And I'm thinking here especially about
the recently released AFE7950 SP.
Which is our direct sampling
analog front end, which supports
frequencies up to X band.
Now, if you talk about ADCs and DACs,
obviously you also need to consider
clocking, which is also essential for
those kinds of applications because you
need extremely low phase noise and jitter.
sometimes even to
femtoseconds level, right?
And another important topic when
we're talking about clocking is
the synchronization feature with
very high accuracy sometimes
down to one picoseconds.
And this is really essential.
For maintaining this precise timing
between phased array systems and elements.
And now if the customers needs a
jitter cleaning and distribution
capabilities for clocking signals,
they can use our LMK 04832 SP.
Or if they, for example, need to generate
a signal and need the synthesizer, they
can use LMX2615 SP or the LMX2694 SP.
In addition to that, I also wanted
to mention a pretty new trend also
in space application, a lot of
customers already trying to replace
their bulky discreet balloons with
fully differential amplifiers.
And exactly for that reason, We are
offering products with high linearity
across a wide bandwidth up to 12 gigahertz
at the moment and the current portfolio
supports one db gain flatness up to
around eight gigahertz at the moment.
The product is called TRF0206SP
which is exactly four differential
amplifiers for this kind of application.
And now the big advantage, this fully
differential amplifier compared to the
balloon is much smaller and much lighter.
So that's a really perfect fit for those
space constraints applications like
communication equipment, for example.
Hywel: Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I see guys are clearly thinking about
everything required to really incorporate
the phase array antenna technology into.
Space mission designs and deal with
the the interfaces and the data rates,
the managing the data rates and getting
the best out of those systems and
your communication system as a whole.
What about the power management,
however how is this dealt with?
Michael: Yeah, this is of course,
also a super important topic,
especially on face the ray antenna.
And the one thing is you
need to have these power.
Our distribution of power
generation devices a daily, highly
efficient in a small form factor.
So we talk about our power
density, very high, and we're
talking RF signal, RF solutions.
So we need to also have
very low noise, right?
We're highly interested in the signal
performance, cannot use any noise there.
And so there is a.
Quite a lot of solutions we can offer
here to really provide here a very
accurate and stable power supply.
So here's the so called point of
loads, the POLs, like the TPS7H4011
SP that allows you even up to a 12
volt input to generate They're low
voltages or you have Another good
example is an LDOA very low noise.
LDO is called the TPS seven H 1 1 1 1.
sp very easy to remember that has such low
noise or high PSRR power supply rejection
ratio is so extremely good on that one
that customers call it really, it's like
this is an ideal power supply for us and
that is of course, extremely helpful.
For the end product, of course,
but also during development, as you
optimize the system, you just know
there's one thing less to worry about,
you have a perfect rail, whatever
causes your signal to degrade.
It's not that power rail that makes
things a lot easier for you, of course.
So that's the overall power tree for
supplying the data converters and maybe
the FPGA and processing capabilities.
Another.
Key element in the power budget is, of
course, the power amplifier, the power
you transmit has to be all generated
by this power amplifier and these
solid state power amplifiers, modern
devices, they need a very powerful
are complex biasing control systems.
So they need a certain voltage
level that needs to be supplied.
And according to the temperature
and the current running through
the power amplifier, you need
to adjust this biasing voltage.
And Here comes a device from TI
that can, it's really helpful here.
It's called an AFE11612 SEP, a highly
integrated analog front end that has
12 DACs and 16 ADCs plus temperature
sensors and a couple of GPIOs integrated.
And that really helps to get
you the PA biasing and control.
implemented in a very effective way.
That's the aspect of
the power tree itself.
But in space, we have also the topic
and this was many times not really
immediately thought about is the fault
detection, isolation and recovery.
So whatever we do in space, we need
to make sure if something goes wrong.
the electronics quickly identify the
problem, but not only identify it,
but they need to isolate the problem
from the rest of the system and
need to see how to recover from that
and get the system back up working.
So that's fault detection,
isolation, and recovery.
It's a play of where you need
to, of course, need sensors
and detect the problem.
So we have this in our power devices,
oftentimes integrated with the overcurrent
protection, overvoltage protection and
detection, overtemperature detection
and corresponding fault output pin.
So the system can be informed
that something went wrong.
As we talk about isolation, we have load
switches with even with precision current
sensing implemented meanwhile, like
here's a device like the TPS7H2140 SP,
so this is a 32 volt Quad channel issues.
And these load switches can then
either automatically detect that
something is wrong and switch off
and isolate the problematic system
from the rest of the bus, or can be
actually be controlled by another
system manager to disconnect things.
And this control and management
or orchestrating this whole fault
detection, isolation and recovery
There comes a device handy.
It's called the
TMS570LC4357 SEP.
It's an MCU we just
released for SpaceGrade.
It's a device integrating our Cortex
R5 floating point cores and actually
two of them are operating in lockstep.
And this overall design here being
especially developed for high reliability
applications that offers a really a
very high diagnostic coverage, but also
a very near instant fault detection,
as we call it, and it's here very
helpful in orchestrate the FDIR.
Adrien: Michael, let me, At maybe
additional point also on the
multi mission support, right?
Because it's also a very important
point and TI supports simply
different mission requirements also.
So depending on the orbit customer
is operating the application, so low
earth orbit or geostationary orbit The
customers can choose between a plastic
package with higher radiation performance,
so called QML class P, or plastic
space enhanced product, so called SEP.
And now the most important
advantage, those products are in
most cases pin to pin compatible,
which offers a huge flexibility
for customers in their designs.
And at the same time, it makes
Sure, customers are using dedicated
product for their space environment.
Okay.
Hywel: Yeah, this is a very important
aspect as well, as we're seeing as
we discussed, more versatile missions
longer missions or missions with multiple
goals that may be in different orbits
potentially or a customer who's creating
technology for different, different
satellites or different vehicles, whatever
it is for different orbits that, but they
want to, limit non recurring energy by
non recurring engineering, apologies, with
a consistent aspect of the technology.
So yeah, this is great.
Thank you.
So I can see how much that TI is
doing in this area and mentioning
fault detection and understand the
power management separately from
the data data rates and the data.
chain compatibility
has been really useful.
Thank you.
Thank you for going into detail on this
and to the listeners, we'll obviously
share more information about the
different products and TI resources that
have been mentioned in the show notes.
So you can read more into how these
sorts of technologies and the designs
of the application notes and the
thinking behind them can be readily
incorporated into your designs, your
plans if this is of interest to you.
So thank you guys for that.
I just wanted to wrap up by, yeah, coming
back to the topic that we started with and
discuss how in a wider sense, you see this
aspect of the space industry evolving.
It would seem like the RF
spectrum is only going to become
more crowded in the short term.
And We might then run into issues with
an increased regulatory burden, where
the bodies in charge of apportioning
and controlling the spectrum are
requiring a greater, admin overhead of
space missions and companies might even
make it difficult for some companies,
especially those smaller, newer
teams to get satellites into orbit.
On the timescales and budgets
that, that makes sense to them.
Yeah, I wondered what your thoughts
were on how you see this area changing
and progressing, moving forwards.
Yeah, I
Michael: think it's definitely on
the move and I think we have reached.
Critical mass.
So that's the trend to face Dorian tennis
is probably very hard to reverse anymore.
But what we will definitely see
moving forward is that we will see
an increase of number of elements.
Because that gives you always, as we
talked about before, a more focused
beam that you want and allows you
also have even more beams per antenna.
And that all translates then into
those benefits of you have maybe
more users and higher data rates per
user per beam, more users overall.
So just a bigger business after all.
The other trend, as you say, the
spectrum is getting crowded, so people
try to go even higher frequency bands
and as technology proceeds where
this is entirely possible, and here
comes for change something good.
The higher you go in frequency
you're shrinking the space needed
between the antenna elements.
So this is you.
How you put them together.
Then if these spaces go even smaller,
you can have put more elements
per antenna, per square meter
or per area if you want, right?
So that's actually going
really the right direction.
What's not helping here
is that your heat problem.
increases the moment, right?
You put even more electronics on an
even denser space, but that is where
yeah, or companies like us at Texas
will keep working to help on that area.
Another positive trend in the
satellite technology is that the
cost of launch per the kilogram.
per weight keeps this decreasing.
So that's just where we have multiple
new players now that help bring down the
cost in this newer rockets and launches.
And that enables them even more
satellite players, more application
services, business models there.
And maybe look at an
example like cell phones.
Of course, they're directly connected
to satellites already today.
We can do voice, we can do text, but
moving forward, we will have true
broadband Our internet access over
satellites from our cell phones.
So in every area of the, on earth, you can
really reach your broadband connectivity.
And so we see there is an
continuous grow and development
in this market ahead of us.
That means that our customers need
to redevelop, but they also want
to reuse things they want to, use.
Standardized components, so they don't
always have to start from scratch.
They can really have an evolution
in the product development.
And there's also the need for
one development and support
multiple mission profiles.
Adrian had pointed out you have
the SEP for the LEO missions,
the QMLP for the GEO missions.
Moving forward, you have
the pin compatibility.
And all that in mind this is where TI is
so convinced what's needed here is really.
Space great catalog products in a way,
you know what they are, you can reorder
when you want them, you can reorder
as many as you want, and you can do
this also in 10 or 15 years from now.
Hywel: Fantastic.
That makes sense as the, as a,
an approach to the industry.
Yeah, I think we've seen how this.
These kinds of approaches obviously
work in other industry sectors.
And I think yeah, TI is really doing
a great job of operating in this
manner and yeah, it was great to
to understand your thinking behind
how this area is moving forward.
So I think this is a great place
to wrap up today's conversation.
Thank you both for sharing.
Thank you, Adrian and Michael for sharing
so many of your insights today on how.
Face array antennas work what
they use for the advantages that
they bring, how to cope with.
The trade offs in terms of, the power
and the heat and the engineering
complexity and what can be done to ease
that integration and of the, of such
technologies into existing designs and
space missions and plans for the future.
So thank you both very much.
We'll share, and to the listeners,
we'll share more information on the
products and resources mentioned by
the guests today in the show notes.
And you can find out.
More about TI on their website and on
their search portfolio, which is very
extensive and has a lot of information on
the products that we've discussed today.
So thank you to everybody out there
for spending time with us today
on the Space Industry Podcast.
We really appreciate your attention.
If you like the show, please give
us an honest rating and review
on your favorite podcast player.
And stay tuned for the next episode of the
show, when we will be speaking to more of
the companies taking us all into orbit.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for listening to this episode
of the Space Industry by SatSearch.
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one of the companies taking us into orbit.
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