Wideband Versatile Receiver for CubeSat Microwave Front-Ends

Abstract

One of the main features of CubeSats is represented by their extreme versatility, e.g., maintaining the same overall structure for different purposes. This requires high technological flexibility achievable in a cost-effective way while maintaining compact sizes. In this contribution, a microwave receiver specifically designed for CubeSat applications is proposed. Due to the wide input operating bandwidth, i.e., 2 GHz–18 GHz, it can be exploited for different purposes, e.g., satellite communication, radars, and electronic warfare systems. This is beneficial for CubeSat systems, whereby the possibility to share the same front-end circuit for different purposes is a key feature in reducing the overall size and weight. The downconverter was designed to minimize the spurious contributions at low frequency by taking advantage, at the same time, of commercial off-the-shelf components due to their cost-effectiveness. The idea behind this work is to add flexibility to the CubeSat communication systems in order to be reusable in different contexts. This feature enables new applications but also provides the largest bandwidth if required from the ground system. An accurate experimental characterization was performed to validate the downconverter performance with the aim of allowing easy system integration for the new frontier of CubeSat technologies. This paves the way for the most effective implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, and smart-everything services.