The satellite industry’s rapid rollout of high-bandwidth constellations is creating new performance demands on the amplifier market. That reality, along with recent and expected launches of a number of Low and Medium Earth Orbit (LEO and MEO) constellations, has put pressure on manufacturers to find ways to best serve the High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) sector. Ka-band will continue to dominate amplifier requirements, whether it’s the GEO HTS systems such as Jupiter and WildBlue/ViaSat, or the new brand of LEO and MEO HTS systems.
“The main technology challenges have been for many years and continue to be in making our amplifiers smaller, lighter and more cost effective, without sacrificing reliability, quality, interfaces or interoperability,” notes Gerard Charpentier, VP of business development for CPI International.
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The Game Changer: GaN
Emerging in the early 2000s before becoming a commercial technology around 2010, GaN has emerged as a dominant solid-state technology, often replacing its predecessor, Gallium Arsenide (GaAs). “Everyone at this point recognizes that any product from C-band and up will be GaN-based,” says Jim Rosenberg, CTO and co-founder of Wavestream, a pioneer in power-combining technology and GaN at Ka-band.
GaN amplifiers handle much higher temperatures and voltages than GaAs transistors. “GaN is going to be the future workhorse of the industry — it is high-power, more efficient and can tolerate higher temperatures,” notes Joe Przygoda, director of business development at Paradise Datacom.
High Power Still the Domain of Tubes
While no one in satellites today can deny GaN’s appeal in delivering high output in smaller packages, no technology is perfect. Heidi Thelander, senior director of business development for Comtech Xicom Technology, says that while all of her company’s newer solid state products are built with gallium nitride, “the one thing you have to be careful with GaN is linearity.”
Thelander and other experts say that Traveling-Wave-Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs) still are the power option of choice for ultra-high broadband applications using Ka-band in GEO orbit. “In space, tubes are still the right answer because their reliability is so high,” notes Theresa Brunasso, president of D&S Microwave Consulting.
Price Pressure from LEO/MEO
Solid state is a fairly likely winner long term. LEO constellations require a much larger volume of antennas and gateways compared with a GEO satellite, and amplifier providers have to find a way to offer lower priced equipment to make it affordable to these customers.
Growth Markets Eyed
Amplifier industry leaders shared where they see the biggest market opportunities for their business with virtually all universally pointing to the growth potential for the Ka-band market. Montreal-based Advantech Wireless says demand for their amplifier products remains high to the point that they need to build a new facility that will double their production capacity when it is completed sometime later this year.
The Coming of V-band
As Ka-band continues to dominate the next wave of satellite rollouts, operators and amplifier players are looking for how to address the bandwidth needs and coverage holes caused by HTS spot beam architecture. Dave Rehbehn, VP of the international division at Hughes Network Systems, says that the attraction of V-band and even Q-band frequencies lies in the potential for more spectrum that can be used to increase the capacity of high throughput satellites. VS
