CPI BUCs and Radomes for IFEC Applications

Communications & Power Industries (CPI) has been a leader in the radio frequency field for decades. The company is well known in the satellite industry for both excellent product reliability and technological innovation. In fact, CPI supported some of the very first satellite projects (at that time as part of Varian Associates), and has been going strong ever since, shipping more than 50,000 high-power amplifiers (HPAs) around the world. In recent years, CPI has won multiple awards for technical innovation, as well as numerous patents, which are a testament to the company’s ongoing heavy emphasis on research and development.

While CPI is well known in the satellite industry for its traditional products, including traveling wave tubes, klystrons, and high power amplifiers, it is less well known within this market that CPI has developed  technological advances in multiple fields, including the scientific arena. Customers have tasked the company with creating groundbreaking products that require output power reaching into the hundreds of megawatts and operating at frequency levels well beyond the 100 GHz mark. CPI has supported atom smashing technology, counter-IED systems, radiation therapy equipment, advances in cargo screening, and even won an Emmy award for television transmitter technology.

CPI Ku-band KRFU.

Continuing its long-standing practice of exploring new innovations for RF applications, CPI has recently expanded its GaN product line to include a series of Ku- and Ka-band RF units (KRFUs) for the In Flight Entertainment and Connectivity (IFEC) market. Developing this product line required altering the amplifier product to fit new mechanical requirements, as well as undergoing the strenuous DO-160 certification process. DO-160 is the document governing environmental conditions and test procedures for airborne equipment. Current CPI KRFU models function as BUCs, taking the signals from L-band signal from the modem, translating it to Ku-band or Ka-band, and amplifying the signal for the satellite. CPI is also developing a complete transceiver for this market, with a downconverter taking signals from the satellite and translating to L-band.

CPI also has a thriving business designing and manufacturing radomes for the IFEC market, and recently expanded its CPI Radant Technologies Division facilities in Hudson, Massachusetts to handle the demand. Radant has a long history of high-performance radome design and manufacturing for airborne platforms (ground-based, shipboard and submarine), and in 2017 was honored by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a manufacturer of the year. The new facility is AS9100D and ISO-9001-2015 certified and FAA approved, and will enable CPI to double its production rates for IFEC radomes.

Register with CPI to see the company’s KRFU data sheets and radome brochure. 

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