COMPARE

Objectives of the present activity are design and validation of an analog receiver front end consisting of antenna, low-noise amplifier and down-conversion stage, based on low-cost space qualified off-the-shelf components as replacements for dedicated high-performance building blocks employed in RUAG's legacy POD receivers.

The use of lower performance components is facilitated by advanced design measures taking into account that for platform navigation receivers, even if in highly elliptical and geo-stationary orbits, processing of a single frequency in a bandwidth of a few MHz is sufficient.

Since this part of the receiver is responsible for almost 50% of the recurring receiver costs, this approach will bring down the latter to levels acceptable for commercial customers, in spite of the fact that requirements with respect to receiver life time, radiation levels and GNSS space vehicle visibility are far more demanding. Starting with the design at TRL-2, analyses and prototyping will prove the concept up to TRL-4 if tested stand-alone and to TRL-5 if connected to an existing receiver Engineering Model (EM).

Coordinator

RUAG Space GmbH

RUAG Space GmbH
Stachegasse 16
A-1120 Wien
Web: www.ruag.com