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K/Ka-Band Very High Data-Rate Receivers: A Viable Solution for Future Moon Exploration Missions
| Publication type | Journal paper |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Authors | Federico Alimenti, Paolo Mezzanotte, Luca Roselli, Valentina Palazzi, Stefania Bonafoni, Roberto Vincenti Gatti, Luca Rugini, Giuseppe Baruffa, Fabrizio Frescura, Paolo Banelli, Federico Bernardi, Fabrizio Gemma, Gianni Nannetti, Paolo Gervasoni, Paolo Glionna, Enrico Pagana, Giambattista Gotti, Paolo Petrini, Francesc Coromina, Federico Pergolesi, Mario Fragiacomo, Alessandro Cuttin, Erica De Fazio, Federico Dogo, and Anna Gregorio |
| Title | K/Ka-Band Very High Data-Rate Receivers: A Viable Solution for Future Moon Exploration Missions |
| Journal title | Electronics |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1–23, article no. 349 |
| Editor | |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Date | March 2019 |
| Place | |
| ISSN number | 2079-9292 |
| ISBN number | |
| Key words | microwave receivers, K/Ka-band, Moon, cislunar space, exploration missions, cubesats, phase-noise, effective noise figure |
| Abstract | This paper presents a feasibility study for a very high data rate receiver operating in the K/Ka-band suitable to future Moon exploration missions. The receiver specifications are outlined starting from the mission scenario and from a careful system analysis. The designed architecture uses a low noise front-end to down-convert the incoming K/Ka-band signal into a 3.7GHz intermediate frequency (IF). For maximum flexibility, a software defined radio (SDR) is adopted for the I/Q demodulation and for the analog to digital conversion (ADC). The decoding operations and the data interface are carried out by a processor based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuits. To experimentally verify the above concepts, a preliminary front-end breadboard is implemented, operating between 27.5 and 30 GHz. The breadboard, which uses components off the shelf (COTS) and evaluation boards (EVBs), is characterized by a 46dB gain, a 3.4dB noise figure and a −37dBm input-referred 1 dB compression point. Finally, a 40Msym/s quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signal is demodulated by means of a commercially available SDR, demonstrating the above concept. The importance of these results is that they have been obtained exploiting a class of miniaturized and low cost microwave integrated circuits currently available on the market, opening the way to a dense communication infrastructure on cislunar space. |
| URL | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/8/3/349 |
| DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/electronics8030349 |
| Other information | |
| Paper |  (portable document format, 4168618 Bytes) |