Signal Conditioning Stage in S-Band Communication Subsystem for CubeSat Applications

Joel A Castillo,José L Alvarez-Flores,Jorge Simón,Rigoberto Jáuregui,Jorge Flores-Troncoso

doi:10.3390/electronics10141627

Joel A Castillo, José L Alvarez-Flores + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10141627

Copy DOI

Abstract

This work presents the design, performance evaluation, manufacture, and characterization of an RF front-end signal conditioning chain on a substrate that achieves the best performance at S-band frequencies and complies with the dimensions of the international standard for CubeSat-type nanosatellites. In this development, the signal conditioning chains were carried out on the high-frequency substrates RO4350B, CuClad 250, and RT/duroid 5880, considering scattering parameters in a small-signal regime. Concerning the power output, after the filtering and amplifying stages, the conditioning chain delivered 2 watts at 2.25 GHz. Moreover, up to 40 dB gain was achieved, and a good impedance matching at −20 dB for both input and output ports was observed. The numerical simulations and experimental results showed that an RO4350B substrate allows the smallest design dimensions, and these comply with the dimensions of the CubeSat standard. The manufactured RF front-end signal conditioning chain on RO4350B requires an area of 95 mm2, and it is ready to be used in a proof-of-concept space mission in a CubeSat.

Highlights

This work aims to design, evaluate, manufacture, and characterize RF front-end signal conditioning chains on a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate that present the best performance at the S-band and an output power of up to 2 W in the small-signal regime and comply with CubeSat standard dimensions
Output ports of the driver amplifier (DA) and the power amplifier (PA), respectively, Towidth measure themicrostrip peak power, and high gain of the chain, a calibration and the of the lines to because ensure aof sweep driving power was set from −30 to 0 dBm using a vector network network analyzer analyzer (VNA)
A similar behavior is observed for each substrate, obtaining a relatively acceptable impedance matching lower than −20 dB at the input and output ports and achieving a gain of up to1040

Summary

Introduction

The arrival of commercially available, high-volume, and low-cost microelectronics has led to miniature satellites called nanosatellites. These small satellites are being used in low Earth orbit (LEO) for earth observations, communications, and interplanetary missions, among others. There is an international design standard for a nanosatellite of a unit, the 1U CubeSat. There is an international design standard for a nanosatellite of a unit, the 1U CubeSat It is a 10 cm cube with a mass of less than 1.33 kg. With these size restrictions, RF and microwave circuitry for communication subsystems should be as small as possible [1,2,3,4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion