Page 26 - EngineerIT December 2022

SPACE SCIENCES

extensive RF and IF signal conditioning solutions deliver the highest level of integration to manage the integration pressures seen
such as filters, amplifiers, attenuators, in these high volume terminal applications.
PLLVCOs and power detection. All ICs
are purposely designed with the signal Higher performance terminal UDCs
chain performance of a user terminal in Some applications within the terminal market are performance driven and have fewer
mind. The ADMV4630/ADMV4640 are Ku restrictions on their size and lowest cost design goals. They have the freedom to use
band UDCs that support an IF interface discrete RFIC solutions. Keeping components in separate packages allows for a mixture
to the satellite modem and are shown in of process technology including MESFET, pHEMT, BiCMOS, and CMOS ICs to optimise
Figures 2 and 3 with highlights of the ICs’ any design requirement. Discrete design allows for many types of performance vs. size
performance shown in the tables. trade-offs, giving maximum flexibility in the design process. Designers can create higher
For the higher frequency Ka band, performance radios giving higher output power and supporting wider bandwidths.
ADI has developed the ADMV4530/ Furthermore, a higher receiver sensitivity to improve dynamic range and improved
ADMV4540 UDCs (Figure 4 and Figure 5) spurious performance can be achieved.It should be noted that ground stations/gateways
that support satcom modems requiring also fall into this category of solutions. Gateways are larger in size and certainly not driven
an I/Q baseband interface. Note that the by the same integration demands at the terminal level. Gateways leverage different
ADMV4530 upconverter is a dual-mode process technology to bring the most performance-optimised solution to the market. At
device, which can also support an IF ADI, we continue to expand the portfolio of discrete solutions to address the use cases.
interface. Designed with silicon, these Figure 6 illustrates a discrete high performance solution.

Figure 2: A highly integrated Ku band upconverter with IF interface directly Figure 3: A highly integrated Ku band downconverter with IF interface
from the satcom modem. directly to the satcom modem.

Figure 4: A highly integrated Ka band upconverter with I/Q and IF interface Figure 5: A highly integrated Ka band downconverter with I/Q interface
directly from the satcom modem. directly to the satcom modem.

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