Satellite radio-frequency payloads and instruments -

Overview and challenges

TEC-EFP
RF Payload Engineering and Digital Equipment Section
RF Payloads and Technology Division
Electrical Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality
European Space Agency – ESTEC
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For ESA Official Use Only 02/10/2023 1
Agenda

• 14:00 Satcom tutorial: • 16:00 Earth observation tutorial:

• Overview of satellite Communications Payloads • Intro

• The need for Flexibility • Radar architectures

• Flexible Payload Architectures • SAR applications

• Enabling Technologies • SAR data rates

• GEO vs non-GEO systems • Future SAR missions

• Challenges Ahead • Digital Backends for radars

• Digital processors • Cognitive SAR

• DBF quantitative scenarios • Future SAR on-board processing

• Efficient DBF algorithms • RFI

• Processing Components for next generation

• Q/A session

2
Satellite Communication Payloads: an
overview of past, present and future
trends and challenges
Salvatore D'Addio, Adem Coskun, Magnus Therkelsen, Max Ghiglione
RF Payload Engineering and Digital Equipment Section
RF Payloads and Technology Division
Electrical Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality
European Space Agency – ESTEC
ESA UNCLASSIFIED – For ESA Official Use Only 02/10/2023 3
Topics – Satellite Communication

• Overview of satellite Communications Payloads

• The need for Flexibility
• Flexible Payload Architectures
• Enabling Technologies
• GEO vs non-GEO systems
• Challenges Ahead
• Digital processors
• DBF quantitative scenarios
• Efficient DBF algorithms
• Processing Components for next generation

4
Satellite Communication Applications
Satellite communication classical applications include:
• Broadcast services
• High speed Broadband Services
• Mobile connectivity
• In flight connectivity
• Secure Communications
• IoT Services
• Requirements on: latency, coverage, availability, high rates, low power
…and possibility to contribute/extend 5G networks with the 5G NTN component…
… but many challenges ahead!

5
Satellite Communication Systems – Trends (Excluding
New Space)

Secure
Communications

~12Gbps
6
 The Challenge until now … Terabit(ps) GEOs
Inmarsat 5

ViaSat 3
(Announced)
~2500 beams
per satellite
• Trend until approx. 2017-2018 to target VHTS
per single GEO satellite (~1Tbps per satellite)
• Targeting maximum capacity is often not able to
offer full payload flexibility (e.g.
coverage/beamforming flexibility with digital
processors)
• Digital beamforming at element level is currently
not yet feasible for supporting the full capacity
(too high power consumption)
7
Examples of VHTS systems - Bent-pipe – Single feed per beam

-Viasat-1/2 (VHTS) - SES-17 (VHTS)

- EUTELSAT KONNECT (VHTS)

8
SATCOM System Needs for Flexibility
• High degree of coverage and mission re-configurability during lifetime
to cope with time variant commercial requirements
• Simultaneous support of multiple beams (global and regional) or large number of spot beams with high level of
frequency reuse with in-flight re-configurability
• Increased request for flexibility (coverage, power, signal)

9
Recent GEO Trend – Flexible Medium Capacity
Since 2017/2018, for GEO the attention has also
moved toward the capability to achieve flexible,
medium capacity, short time-to-market satellite
solutions
•Targeting mainly Ku/Ka-band services on continental
coverage for both broadband and TV broadcast
•Throughput Range 50-100Gbps), with beams of moderate
size (about 0.5 degs).
•Payloads based on digital processors and array-fed
reflectors with about ~100-200 radiating elements.
•Payload Power Consumption expected in the range 10-
15kW
•Coverage flexibility is a key requirement
(shaped beam and spot beam capability-reconfigurability)

SES Geonext example,

source www.ses.com
10
Call for Flexibility
Operators’ Expectation Manufactures’ Expectation
• Flexibility to adapt to evolving business conditions • Increase of generic equipment volumes
• Market evolution (services and/or users) • Less customization
• Satellite Operator Competition • Decrease of equipment types
• Terrestrial Network Competition • Increased production runs, Wider range of usage
• Evolution of Terminal Technology (Transparency) • Effective buying/stocking policy for parts
• Early entry into new markets • Reduced Non Recurring Engineering (NRE)
• Rationalization of the procurement process (schedule, • Late definition/modification of the missions
less customization) • Industrial competitive advantages
• Efficient operations (Payload Resources, in-orbit • Differentiator wrt competition
redundancy, different orbital slots)
KEY TECH • At regime lower costs and shorter schedule

Active Antennas On-Board Digital Processors

• Power / coverage / orbit flexibility • Routing / switching / beamforming / hopping flexibility

Flexibility, modularity, scalability, genericity

11
High Throughput and Flexible system – Payload Needs
System Needs Payload Response
Flexible coverage to: adapt to mission requirements, Active user link Antenna/Payload
allow reuse in different orbital slot

Flexible power/beam allocation -> Active Antenna on user-link

Flexible Resource Allocation in time/space to cope with
Flexible BW/beam allocation -> OBP
non-uniform traffic needs

Flexible Feeder links to support: reconfig. GWs locations, Flexible mapping of GWs into user beams
gradual GW deployment

Larger BW per satellite (both feeder and user links) Freq reuse on user link and Higher Freq bands for Feeder Link

Flexible Beam Size to cope with non-uniform traffic Active user link Antenna/Payload
needs

Smaller minimum beam size to cope with the need to Adoption of Large Aperture Antennas
deliver higher throughput

Higher beam frequency reuse to provide a higher Adoption of Large Aperture Antennas
throughput per satellite

Reduced production cost and time Modular/Scalable Payload Architecture with standardized interface

Space segment adaptation to the gradual traffic growth Smaller payloads in co-located orbital locations (GEO) with flexible
for new markets coverage capability

12
Simplified Satcom Payload Block Diagram

Payload User-Link
Inter Satellite Link Tx Active Antenna
On Board Digital
Terminal N Beams / Single or Dual Pol /
Processor
ISLs x M Optionally with ABFN
Optical or RF
Regenerative
And/Or
Transparent

Functions Included:
- Analog to Digital Conv
- Digital to Analog Conv
Feeder-Link - Channelization
Feeder-Link Tx - Digital Freq Conversion User-Link
Tx/Rx Antenna(s) HPAs -Routing and Switching Rx Active Antenna
-Digital Beamforming N Beams / Single or Dual Pol /
- Modulation/Demodulation Optionally with ABFN
- Coding/Decoding
Feeder-Link
-Spectrum Monitoring
Rx
- Geolocation
LNAs

13
The “Dream” SATCOM Payload
• Modular (active) antenna able to cope with different type of missions with flexibility in power allocation
• Compact low-mass/low-power modular RF Frequency Conversion Chains (one per antenna feed)
• Core common digital processor, reprogrammable and reconfigurable providing the required flexibility in
terms of:
• Satellite coverage
• Beam shape
• Beam frequency allocation / Beam Hopping Transparent

Analog-to-Digital Conversion

Digital-to-Analog Conversion
On-Board

Frequency-Conversion

Frequency-Conversion
• Regenerative Functions: MOD/DEMOD, COD/DECOD Digital

Digital Beamforming

Digital Beamforming
Processor
Reconfig.
Reconfig. [Channelization
Power
• Frequency Channelisation
Rx Level Control
Pooling
Antenna Switching]
Tx
Front-End
Antenna
Regenerative SDR OBP
• Routing and Switching ( also to Inter-Satellite Links) [Demod/Decoding
Routing
Encod/Mod]
• Sharing between bent-pipe and meshed capabilities
• Payload self-calibration
• Geolocation and Spectrum Monitoring Functions
• Future “ready” (e.g. 5G compatible) 14
 Multibeam Active Array - Principles
Multibeam
Beamforming Network
(maximum flexibility of implemented
digitallly)
Array
1

3
.
Beam
1 1
M

Active Antennas are the natural

N
response to the need of flexibility
Power Amplifiers in terms of:
(each amplifier is contributing to - Power Pooling
the all beams => maximum
power pooling)
- Coverage Reconfigurability
15
Active Antennas in LEO, MEO and GEO

LEO MEO GEO

FoV ~ +/-45deg FoV ~ +/-15deg FoV ~ +/-8deg

DRAs
Direct Radiating AFRs
Arrays Array-Fed Reflectors
16
ESA R&D developments on SATCOM Active Antennas

LEO MEO GEO

Ka-band array built from identical 3D

printed monolithic clusters for GEO active
array (Courtesy of Swissto12)

LEO active antenna

demonstrator during Ka band Front End Radiating
antenna test (Courtesy Module and HPAs for MEO active
Ka-band array concept for GEO (Courtesy
Airbus Defence and antennas (Courtesy of Thales
of Thales Alenia Space France)
Space). Alenia Space)

17
Active Multibeam Antennas / Beamforming
Conventional
(Corporate, Blass, Nolen)
1

.
Beam
1

Butler
N

Beam
1

BFN
N
Discrete Lens Arrays
Sparse Arrays (e.g. Rotman Lens) Magnified Arrays
(with single or double reflector) 18
The other option: Digital Beamforming

• In digital beamforming, the operations

of phase shifting and amplitude scaling
I
A 1
Q
A 1

for each antenna element, and

summation for receiving, are done
digitally.

AIm
AQm

I,Q samples of the

beam signals

AI M
AQM

Complex Multiplier
and Adder
BI 1 Q BIn Q BIN Q
B 1 B n B N

19
Digital Beamforming - Features
DBF can offer the following non-exhaustive list of the features

• Beams can be individually formed, steered and shaped.

• Beams can be assigned to individual user.
• Beamforming strategy can be software upgraded.
• Interference can be minimised implementing Adaptive Beamforming.
• DSP techniques (filtering, multiplexing, demodulation, signal
information extraction, performance optimisation, etc.) can be
integrated.

Digital Beamforming Antennas, “the Ultimate Antennas”

A.J. Viterbi
20
Analog or Digital beamforming? Both!
Analog BFN Digital BFN Digital BFN Analog BFN
1 1
1 w1 φ1 w1ejφ1 1
A/D jφ1
w1e
A/D A/D

A/D
NA
A/D
M Beam M M A/D
A/D
1
A/D
A/D
A/D 1
A/D
A/D
A/D
wN φN wNejφN
NA A/D ND
wNejφN NA
ND=N

Analog BFN Digital BFN Hybrid BFN

- Cost - Good balance between

- Power consumption power consumption and
- High number of components for - High flexibility/reconfigurability
flexibility
large number of beams - High precision
- Reducing Nr of digital
- Mass/Volume - High power consumption
ports (i.e ADCs) with
- Precision/Accuracy inferior wrt DBF - Cost
respect to full DBFN
- Reduced reconfigurability wrt DBFN - Complexity/Cost

21
Brick vs Tile Architecture

Brick Pictorial Example Tile Pictorial example

• Tile Architectures are in principle preferred for size and mass reasons, however practical limitations
on technology readiness, power consumption and thermal dissipation lead often to the
implementation of Brick Architectures
• Frequency and Tx power per element are also major drivers for the architecture selection
• Typical GEO payloads with active antennas are currently based on the brick architecture, LEO
payloads are also moving towards tile architecture
22
Transparent On-Board Processors
Digital Bent-Pipes
• Offer an alternative to the analog filtering, routing and
frequency conversion.
• More efficient use of space resources
• The same design can be easily adapted to different
customer requirement reducing non recurrent
development costs.

Intensive and continuous support of the European

Space Agency on:
• Co-design of architectures and algorithms.
• Technological building blocks
(ASICs, ADCs/DACs, HSSLs, packaging)
• Development qualification and in-orbit demonstration

Now a commercial reality!

23
OBP Key Enabling Technologies

A/D MCDX MCMX D/A

• High-speed and low-power A/D and D/A converters,
• High-speed serial links between components (intra-
A/D MCDX MCMX D/A
boards and inter boards/equipment),
• Radiation-hardened ASIC technology (high
SWITCHING integration, low voltage, low power),
• High density modular packaging,
• Thermal Management,
• Processor architecture/algorithm optimisation (to
A/D MCDX MCMX D/A minimise complexity burden, interconnects, power
consumption, etc),
A/D MCDX MCMX D/A • FPGAs (SoC/RFSoC/SiP/etc…) and DSPs for
reconfigurability.
24
Evolution of Software Defined Radios

Challenges for • Increased Component Density

Software • Higher Device Complexity

Defined • Higher-Speed Data Converters

• Faster Device and Board Interfaces
Radio
• Development Cycles
Systems • New Technology Insertion
• Design Portability
• Reliability and Maintainability
• Life Cycle Management
• SWaP-C

25
Recent European Mid-Class Flexible Payloads
• Recent European platform and payload developments (e.g. ADS Onesat and TAS SpaceInspire) target
indeed mid-class fully reconfigurable payloads, based on digital transparent processor, distributed
amplification and active antennas.
• These payloads will be equipped with latest digital processors developments with also digital
beamforming capability
• Software defined, moderate/high capacity, agility, in-orbit reconfiguration, flexible coverage, proven
serial production
• Obviously flexibility comes at a cost, they are not able to achieve (yet) very high throughput capacity
per satellite (e.g. about 200-300Gbps in FW link)

SpaceInspire artistic impression Onesat artistic impression (ADS

(Thales website) website) 26
Non-GEO constellations: a cost effective solution?
Recent years have seen the re-proposing of the well-known
trade-off between GEO and non-GEO:
• GEO: 3 GEOs provide global coverage except polar regions
• MEO: O3b MEO provides global coverage except polar regions
with 4-20 satellites
• LEO: OneWeb/Lightspeed/Starlink provide global coverage with
hundreds to thousands satellites with:
• + Limited latency (30-50ms wrt 600-800ms for GEO orbit)
• + Smaller satellites / series production VS
• + Larger # satellites
• + Possible polar areas coverage
• - Shorter lifetime, high (total) launch cost
• - User terminal tracking antenna
• - More complex infrastructure deployment and
management
• - More difficult spectrum sharing 27
The Challenge until now … Non GEO Constellations
O3b mPower (Boeing)
Recent Broadband systems are emerging in LEO and MEO

• MEO System
• Supported by Software Defined Radio Boeing
702X satellites
Source/Credit: 5G Americas • Digital beamforming performed (claimed up to
5000 beams per satellite) 28
The Challenge now and Ahead … Mega Constellations
• >618 satellite launched to date
Oneweb • Sat: 150kg, 1kW
• Ku-band non-active antennas
• Next generation Oneweb 2nd gen
will likely increase satellite size
(~500kg) and upgrade payload
capabilities based on active
antennas and digital processors

Credit: Oneweb, ADS, ArianeSpace

Credit: JoeySat satellite,

(demonstrator for 2nd gen)
29
The Challenge now and Ahead … Mega Constellations

Lightspeed - Telesat
Main Facts:
• 198 satellites on polar orbit
• payload based on:
• Ka-band active phased array
antennas
• Digital processor,
• Digital beamforming, and beam
hopping
• Sat Class: ~750kg, ~2-3kW
Source: Telesat, MDA

30
The Challenge now and Ahead … Mega Constellations
Starlink

Starlink high level facts

Mass 260kg

Phased Array Antenna based Ku-

Payload
band, ~600W

Stowed 2.8m x 1.5 m x 0.23m

Dimensions
Deploy P/F:3.7m x 1.5m x 0.1 m
ed SA: 2.8 m x 8.1 m

Launch Falcon 9; 60 sats/launch

• About 4000 satellites launched so far!

• Starlink 2nd gen will feature much larger
satellites. V2 mini satellites have been recently
launched 31
Space Active Antenna Example outside Europe

Pictorial Representation Ka-band active

antenna , Source: Cesium Astro

Low-Profile antennas combining analog RF and digital functions

32
Direct to Handheld and NB-IoT - Status

Two-Way Messaging

33
Direct to Handheld and NB-IoT - Status
A
Broadband Applications Main Facts:
• 64m^2 aperture
• 3GPP Frequency: 750-850MHz
• Enables data-rates ~10Mbps

On April 25 2023, made the world's first space-

Source: AST-Science Spacemobile, based two-way telephone call with unmodified
BlueWalker 3 prototype satellite smartphones (a Samsung Galaxy S22 and an Apple
iPhone) using the satellite.
34
5G NTN Non Terrestrial Networks
- Use of Satellites being Standardized within 3GPP as part of
5G, contributing to the 5G NTN
- Integration of Terrestrial Networks and Non-Terrestrial
Networks to provide enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB)
to consumer mobile phones and IoT
- Rel17 specifies L-band and S-band, Rel18 introduces
>10GHz bands

Source: 3GPP

35
Integration and Convergence and with 5G
Satellite Use Cases Convergence of Technologies

Antennas
Active
Digital Signal
Processing
36
Digital Processors: key enablers for the functionalities
of current and next generation payloads
Digital Processors provide critical functions enabling flexibility:
• Communication enabler between GEO, LEO, UAV and
terrestrial network systems
• Digital signal/data processing via transparent or regenerative
processor: channelisation, routing/switching, digital pre-
distortion, digital beamforming, hopping, modem functions
• Active antenna management and beamforming control
• Inter-satellite link enabler via RF or optical links
ESA active support on:
• Technological building blocks
(ASICs, FPGAs, ADCs/DACs, HSSLs, packaging)
• Co-design of architectures and algorithms
• Development qualification and in-orbit demonstration

37
 Digital Transparent OBP
Control, Monitoring
TM/TC and Configuration
• A digital transparent OBP serves as a well-established
FWD solution for demultiplexing, routing, and multiplexing signals
1 1
for reception and transmission for satellites.
A/D D/A
Feeder Feeder User User
Routing &

Gain
…

…
(Optical/RF) DEMUX DBFN MUX Downlink
Uplink N M
• In a high-throughput configuration, the digital processor can
A/D D/A

RTN
also handle a portion or the entirety of the beamforming
Feeder 1 D/A A/D 1 task.
Feeder Routing & User User

Gain
(Optical/RF)
…

…
Uplink
• Technology developments in High-speed data converters
MUX DBFN DEMUX
Downlink
N D/A A/D M

(ADC &DAC), transistor and packaging, interconnect

Digital Transparent OBP improve the capability and efficiency of these processors.
MHz Bandwidth Others TAS
per Port Airbus DS
• Additional processing tasks can be assigned to the OBP to
perform; frequency and beam hopping, beamsteering,
Airbus DS
SMP TAS
Spaceflex
500 ST Micro 65nm
TAS
interference mitigation, level control, dynamic channel
Bandwidth per port

Airbus DS Spaceflex5
NGP (Alphasat)

switching, equalisation, power control, dynamic resource

250
500MHz 500MHz

Airbus DS
TAS
TAS DTP 2G

management, spectrum optimisation and allocation,

125 MT-SAT
SYRACUSE
INMARSAT 4 14+14 x 250MHz 20+20 x 250MHz

TAS
SICRAL 1B
50
156 x 29MHz
20+20 x 125MHz
calibration and linearisation.
8+8 x 40MHz

Time 38
Transparent digital OBP (cont.)
• For UHTS GEO missions, custom ASIC designs are the
preferred choice for conducting OBP operations due to their power
56 Gbps/HSSL
efficiency. However, in a narrower bandwidth and low throughput
32 Gbps/HSSL
configuration, these tasks can be supported by commercial off-the-
56 Gbps/HSSL
shelf (COTS) devices, particularly state-of-the-art FPGAs.
32 Gbps/HSSL
• Typically, processing takes place in several consecutive stages and
56 Gbps/HSSL layers, tailored to accommodate various customers and missions.
32 Gbps/HSSL • The interconnection between these processing stages, and
consequently between individual processing elements, is a critical
limiting factor, especially as the number of ports, beams, and user
A/D D M D/A
bandwidth increases. Fortunately, this limitation is becoming less
restrictive thanks to advancements in interconnect speeds and the
Switch
A/D D M D/A
and/or
Switch Switch
A/D D Beamforming M D/A
and/or other

availability of a greater number of HSSLs.

A/D D M D/A

A/D D M D/A

A/D ASICs D/A

• Beamhopping can significantly enhance the total system capacity in

HSSLs HSSLs a time-multiplexed fashion. Different beams can be assigned
A/D

A/D D M
D/A

D/A
timeslots, leading to an improved frequency reuse in addition to their
D M
spatial separation.
A/D D/A

Switch
A/D D M D/A
and/or
Switch Switch
A/D D Beamforming M D/A
and/or other
A/D D M D/A

39
 Transparent digital OBP (cont.) AI AI EI − AQ EQ

AQ AI EQ + AQ EI
• The design of a transparent OBP becomes more
AI1
AQ1
challenging as the volume of data to be processed
increases.
AIm
AQm

Data Throughput = Nport x (2 x BWper_port) x Nbper_sample

• The utilisation of active antennas and full digital
AI M
AQM

6 Tbs /2 = 3 Tbps
(Assuming no beamforming at the
beamforming leads to an expansion in the number of
I I I
B1 Q Bn Q BN Q
B 1 B n B N
Feeder Link)
1 GHz/port x 250 ports x 2 x 12
RTN
bits/Sample = 6 Tbps
ports on the processor, thereby increasing the data load.
A/D
User Routing & Feeder D/A
In contrary, lower bit resolution would be deemed
DEMUX DBFN MUX
acceptable when employing large antenna arrays (1000s
of antenna elements).
~2 x 6 Tbps = 12 Tbps
(Assuming Oversampling and overheads}
12 Tbps / 2 = 6 Tbs
(Assuming Number of Beams = Number of ports/ 2}
• In digital beamforming, the operations of phase shifting
and amplitude scaling for each antenna element,
and summation for receiving, are done digitally. The total
FWD
number of beamforming weights (i.e. multiplications)
D/A
User Routing & Feeder A/D
plays a key role in defining the processing burden.To
MUX DBFN DEMUX
18 Tbps 36 Tbps 18 Tbps 9 Tbps
carry out the complex weighting, four real multiplications
(Assuming 1:3 RTN
to FWD ratio)
and two real additions are be required. Multipliers cost
much more than Adders
40
Transparent digital OBP (cont.)

41
 Regenerative OBP
High Spectral Low spectral
Efficiency Efficiency
• Regenerative processing requires additional MODEMs on board
for signal encoding and decoding. They can facilitate the
1 A/D D/A 1 transformation of signals between different air interfaces too.
DEMOD
Feeder Packet User User

MOD

…
Feeder
• This approach allows for the separation of the uplink and
…

DEMUX Switching DBFN/

Downlink
(Optical/RF) N A/D MUX D/A M
Uplink
downlink, but it comes with the trade-off of increased complexity
and power consumption in the OBP. Because the spectral
Feeder 1 D/A
User A/D 1 efficiency of the feeder and user links differ, it's possible to
DEMOD User
Feeder
MOD

(Optical/RF) DBFN/

…
…

Downlink
N D/A
MUX DEMUX
A/D M
Uplink support the same capacity with reduced bandwidth on the feeder
Sampled Spectrum link and on the ISL, thereby reducing the requirement for multiple
ISLs and gateways.
OISL • MODEMs also play a crucial role in improving the link
Optical ISL Throughput performance by providing error correction, enhancing SNR, and
optimizing the link budget.
• They could help to establish a 5G/6G connectivity on the
telecommunication satellite or to support conventional DVB-S2X,
DVB-RCS2 standards or custom waveforms.

42
 Regenerative OBP (cont.)
• ASICs are commercially available to deliver MODEM operations. A set
of these MODEMS (of ~500 MHz each(*)) would consume only a few
watts to deliver several Gbps of data. State-of-the-art FPGAs, with a
good level of radiation tolerance, can also be an alternative when they
are equipped with custom software and firmware as MODEM.
• Transceiver chipsets (with filtering, mixing and data conversion
functions) and a digital signal processing unit (the quantity of which
depends on the bandwidth to be processed) enables the full
reconfigurability of the OBP in-orbit making way to a fully flexible
satellite payload.
• The RF Transceivers for SDR have relatively lower bandwidth (200
The concept of having a MODEM onboard aligns well with MHz), whereas wideband (but more power hungry) ADC/DACs (3
the integration of the spacecraft in a network of satellites GHz bandwidth) can replace them depending on the application.
from various orbits and terrestrial networks. This
approach allows for the processing of data received from Where needed, these ADC/DACs are good for direct sampling of the
ISL&RF links and facilitates rerouting to the next node in RF signal too (up to Ka Band) discarding the need for mixing stages.
the network, thanks to the regenerative payload.
• Numerous radiation tolerant alternatives of these digital signal
- Gil Shacham, “On Board Processing Payload”
processing platforms are in use in addition to radiation hardened
- Executive Summary Report “Towards the All Optical satellite communications system” ones. 43
What is coming in the future digital processors?

• Regenerative Processors for Next generation Missions

• Target Missions: VHTS, UHTS, Mega Constellations
• Key Features: High throughput, flexibility, user density

• Generic Reconfigurable Processors (“Full” SDR)

• Target Missions: Low/Medium size missions (also non-telecom)
• Key Features: modularity, re-usability for several applications, Applications running on
custom firmware/software , Reduced time to market

• Increased use of COTS across the different domains

44
Next Generation of Regenerative Processors
• Regenerative Processors are a key element for GEO and LEO future missions, both commercial or for secure
communications. On-going and planned developments e.g. by ADS and TAS in this category, among others.
• Enabling Technologies:
• UDSM 7nm and beyond
• Digital Photonics High Speed Serial Links up to 112Gbps
• High Integration and Heterogeneous Packaging (potentially including PIC)
• Key potential features and functions:
• Supported throughput >1THz
• Digital beamforming >500GHz
• Large number of ports >200
• Up to 5GHz BW per port
• Digital IFs (e.g. for ISL), higher RF interfaces e.g. W-band
• Dynamic spectrum allocation, Jammer cancellation
• Ethernet Packet Router
• Possible Inclusion of Optical functions TBC (e.g. Optical WDM interfaces, Optical beamforming)
• Compatible with 5G/6G standards
45
• Scaled down versions for LEO constellations
Historical Evolution – from 180nm to 28nm
Historical trend of Mass and Power per GHz of processed bandwidth

46
Processor - Ultra Deep Submicron technology
• Highly efficient processors needed for on-board processing and beamforming application, which can only be
achieved with Ultra Deep Submicron (UDSM) technology
• Commercial-of-the-Shelf (COTS) processors viable in LEO application with significant cost advantage, but
require dedicated radiation mitigation and error handling
• Mostly non-European solutions
• Not suited for safety and security sensitive application
=> Develop a UDSM Radiation-Hard Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) mixed-signal standard cell
library and IP portfolio based on 7 nm (or beyond) CMOS technology for the design of complex ASIC

GOAL:
Increase competitiveness for European industry in
the telecom sat market, secure/high performance
Navigation applications and state of the art Earth
Observation payloads to meet future NAV and EO
mission challenges.

47
Processor – RF System-on-Chip (RfSoC)
High integration needs require RF System on Chip providing in a single package European, rad-hard UDSM
based
• Reprogrammable FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) aiming to increase the processing capabilities and
functional density by at least x10 compared to state-of-the-art (SOTA) European solutions
• Multi-Core Microprocessor, based on open-source RISC-V, increasing the processing capacity by at least x20
compared to the SOTA European solutions
• Multiple RF Analog to Digital (ADC) and Digital to Analog (DAC)
converter for direct conversion from/ to Ka band and beyond
• Accelerators for Digital Signal Processing (AI, beamforming, …),
Encryption (AES), DVB-S2X, ….
• Serializer/ Deserializer (SerDes) up to 112 Gbps
• Co-packaged Optical Transceivers up to 400 Gbps
• High Bandwidth Memories, interface to DDR4/ 5/ GDDR6
• High performance Network-on-Chip (NoC) Source: Xilinx Versal ACAP
https://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/acap/versal.html
48
 Processor – Packaging Solutions
High integration needs require packaging solutions that allow heterogeneous integration and corresponding
interconnection standards/ protocols
• Substrate-, Silicon Interposer-, Silicon-Bridge- or RDL-based
• Co-packaging of Electro-Optical transceivers
• Move to 2.5D 3D packaging solutions

Source: Chiplet Heterogeneous Integration Technology - Status and Challenges

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/4/670

Source: Intel Tofino, HotChips 2020

Source: Chiplet Heterogeneous Integration Technology - Status and Challenges

https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/9/4/670

Source: Intel Agilex

Source: Teledyne e2v https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/details/fpga/agilex.html
White Paper Advanced System in Package 49
Efficient Digital Signal Processing
• Development of efficient algorithms and processing techniques are essential to
mitigate the complexity and power consumption challenges, associated with the
signal processing chains of telecom processors.
• One noteworthy example is the ongoing work undertaken by the University of
Luxembourg, TAS-I and SES under an ESA contract.
• The main objective of this activity is to create an efficient digital beamforming
technique for satellite scenarios that offers low power consumption and efficient
area utilisation through the use of FFT (Fast Fourier Transform).
• The activity involves modelling and testing a fully unrolled FFT implementation for
digital beamforming purposes. In this technique, the twiddle factors are designed
based on 4-bit quantised values providing a big reduction in the resources needed
Example of Radiation Pattern Comparison between FFTs implementations
to deliver FFT operations in comparison to conventional techniques. Further
optimizations are made to enhance the maximum operating frequency of the
design.
• It's noteworthy that the proposed fully unrolled FFT demonstrates a signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) similar to that of conventional FFT implementations.
• Area (resource utilisation) and power analysis comparison is showing high potential
of the proposed technique, with power savings that can go beyond 50% wrt
Power and Area Analysis Xilinx US+ reference FPGA,
16 bit resolution @125MHz conventional FFT
R. Palisetty, G. Eappen, V. Singh, L. M. G. Socarras, V. N. Ha, J. A. V. Peralvo, J. L. G. Rios, J. C. M. Duncan, W. A. Martins, S. Chatzinotas, B. Ottersten, B.
Cortazar†, S. D’Addio, and P. Angeletti “FPGA Implementation of Efficient 2D-FFT Beamforming for On-Board Processing in Satellites”
50
Efficient Digital Signal Processing (cont.)
• Numerous algorithmic and architectural enhancements can be implemented in telecommunication
processors to improve the efficiency of signal processing.
• Some key areas are:
• Multiplierless designs, utilisation of Reconfigurable Multiplier Blocks
• Design and use of specialised digital filter, datapath and coefficient quantisation tools
• Critically Sampled/Reduced over-Sampling Channelisation.
• Reconfigurable and Tunable Filter banks to enhance flexibility in channel width and
centre frequency.
• Improvements in FFT operations through reconfigurable FFT blocks and coefficient
store strategies.
• Designing additional efficient processing components within ASICs to support multiple
missions, air interfaces, and customer requirements
• Compression of the Interconnect Data.
• Digital beamformers to support non-uniform antenna arrays and non-uniform beam
An example to the computational complexity comparison lattices; true-time-delay beamformers.
of FFT filter banks using FIR and IIR prototype filter
candidates for a specific application within the OBP. The
• Exploration of alternative filtering and modulation techniques (Almost Linear Phase IIR
IIR has a big potential to reduce the number of operations filters and DCT/DFT)
wrt conventional filtering techniques.
A. Coskun, S. Cetinsel, I. Kale, R. Hughes, P. Angeletti, and C. Ernst, "Digital Prototype Filter Alternatives for Processing Frequency-Stacked Mobile Sub-Bands Deploying a"Single ADC for Beamforming Satellites"
A. Coskun, I. Kale, R.C.S. Morling, R. Hughes, S. Brown, and P. Angeletti, “The Design of Low Complexity Low Power Pipelined ShortLength Winograd Fourier Transforms,”
A. Coskun, I. Kale, R.C.S. Morling, R. Hughes, S. Brown, and P. Angeletti, “Efficient Digital Signal Processing Techniques and Architectures"
51
SatCom Payload Digital Components

Analog Signal Digital Signal Physical Layer Higher Layers

ADC/DAC ASIC FPGA Processor

Down- Digital Demodulator/ Data

ADC Filtering
conversion Filtering Decoder Processor

Digital Modulator/
DAC Beamforming Upconversion Router
Filtering Encoder

HSSL

Baseband interface

Data interface
IF interface

Control
Processor

52
Digital Payload Components
• Mixed signal ASIC RF front-end (> L-band)
• integrated ADC/DAC
• Digital/Hybrid Beamforming
• FPGA / SoC communication protocol (> 250 MHz)
• Flexible or Reconfigurable Decoding/Encoding
• Flexible or Reconfigurable Modulation
• DVB-S2/RCS and 5G-NR protocols handling
• SW based packet switching / router (100 Gb)
• MAC layer handling
• HSSL/SERDES/Ethernet (100Gb)
• High speed digital interconnects
• …ISL coherent laser digital signal processing
European 7nm is critical for future
satcom payload digital processing

53
Satellite Communication Payloads: an
overview of past, present and future
trends and challenges – Annex on
5G/6G
Maria Guta
Connectivity & Secure Communications
ARTES SPL 5G/6G
European Space Agency – ESTEC
02/10/2023
ESA UNCLASSIFIED - For ESA Official Use Only 54
Anticipate NTN systems design vs standardisation time
5G 5G Advanced 6G

2020 2022 2023 2025 2026 2027+

Rel. 16 Rel. 17 Rel. 18 Rel. 19 Rel. 20 Rel. 21
• Transparent P/L • Network verified UE • Enhancements • Stage 1: SA1
• NR-NTN direct to location, coverage UL/DL Services 3D-
smartphones & mobility capacity/coverage – NTN
• NB-IOT • Backhaul with Discontinuous • 3D-NTN/Multi-
• FR1 (S & L band) variable changing coverage orbit
delays (ie ISLs) • Regenerative
• Policy/QoS support payloads
• UPF onboard • IAB/WAB support
• Discontinuous • NTN 5GMBS
coverage • NTN RedCap
• FR2 mmWave • NTN/TN Mobility
(Ka/Ku-band) enhancements
• High UE Tx power
• GNSS - enhanced
free operations

SPL Activities on Mid-Term Architectures implementations & NTN Systems &

Products developments
SPL Activities on Early definitions of Longer-term NTN Systems SPL Activities on Longer-term NTN System & Products
Architectures - Roadmaps – CTE prototypes developments 55

55
Satellite Technologies
Software Defined Flexible Satellite
Mid-Term 2025-2027 Longer Term 2027-2030
Constellations/
Multi-orbit –Early 3D-NTN Fully Fledged ML-NTN

gNB in Space Nodes Implementation of ‘Greener’

Concepts and Technology for
Regenerative Payloads
Edge Core Split Implementation of smart ML-
NTN with Improved Routers in
Edge Computing Space Nodes
AI for NTN edge nodes network
AI onboard (application data) management
Feasibility Analysis
Joint Computing & Sensing
(early prototypes of CTE)
Store and Forward Laboratory testbeds
Multi-orbit Architectures and In orbit Experimentation &
segments design and Demonstration
development • Joint computing, communication and storage architectures optimisation
• Design Tools for Processing FPGAs and ASICs
• ‘Greener’: Analysis and design tools that correlate energy consumption and
Routing optimisation (semantic) processing power for regenerative payloads
• New concepts reduce costs of DRA and specific designs for Small LEO satellites 56
ARTES Strategic Programme Line 5G/6G Relevant Activities
• 5G-IS – 5G Space Infrastructure Study  Medium & longer term designs and technology roadmap 5G-IS | ESA CSC (Extension for automotive)

Partners

• 5GEOSIS : Response to ARTES SPL 5G ITT on ”Repurposable as a Payload”: 5G Server in Space for Joint Processing and Communications towards
Joint Communications and Sensing

• ARTES SPL 5G ITT on ”Beyond 5G/6G networking architectures for multi-layered Non-Terrestrial Networks and smart satellites ” – Advanced onboard routing for
ML-NTN based on semantic routing enhancements – under negotiation

57
Thank you for your
attention !
Overview of European Earth
Observation Spaceborne Radars: Past,
Present and Future Challenges
Salvatore D'Addio, Ricardo Pinto, Ernesto Imbembo, Marc Zimmermanns, Max Ghiglione
Payload Engineering Section
RF Payloads and Technology Division
Electrical Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality
European Space Agency – ESTEC
ESA UNCLASSIFIED - For ESA Official Use Only 02/10/2023 59
Topics

• Intro
• Radar architectures
• SAR applications
• SAR data rates
• Future SAR missions
• Digital Backends for radars
• Cognitive SAR
• Future SAR on-board processing
• RFI

60
Why Earth Observation?
Back in 1991 ESA’s then Director General Jean-Marie Luton wrote in the ESA Bulletin on ERS-1:

It is increasingly apparent that mankind faces a number of potentially very serious problems of an environmental
nature, including climatic changes due to the Greenhouse Effect, Ozone depletion etc.
Observation of the Earth from space is one of the keys to achieving a better understanding of the Earth as a
system and this is vital if we are to make a comprehensive assessment of the influence of man’s activities on the
environment.

Now, 30+ years on, as evidence grows for anthropogenic climate change and its effects are felt, those words are
more valid than ever.

A key feature of satellite remote sensing is that it can provide consistent global data from a single instrument,
avoiding problems of cross-calibration etc.
There is, however, an inevitable trade-off between spatial and temporal sampling from low Earth orbit.
New missions and user-needs call for more coverage, better performance, better revisit time, reduced latency,
=> more DATA! 61
EO Provides “Big Data” on the entire planet
ESA Operated Missions Today >25TB new data per day, >250TB distributed data
Remote sensing enables the understanding and monitoring of earth processes and human activity

62
Devising Earth Observation Missions
Living Planet Program

Research Missions Earth Watch Missions

Member States Member States

Earth Explorers Copernicus Meteorology InCubed Other
& Scouts
Ideas from science partners Altius
in MS (Open Calls) TRUTHS
Artic Weather Sat
PNRR

• User needs from institutional partners & industry

Also Mission of Opportunity
with partners outside MS
(NGGM with NASA)
63
ESA Developed Earth Observation Missions
Small Sats
SmallSats
in D/TEC

FSScat – Φ-sat-1

Φ-sat--2
Mantis

HyperField

InCubed /
Commercial
IOD

64
 ground motion
magnetic field
(earthquake/volcano/landslide)
(external & internal)

aerosol ocean colour

properties greenhouse
gases ice sheets /
floods
glaciers sea ice shelves
EO data land cover
lakes & rivers fire
address ocean
geoid currents
sea pollution
almost all parameters leaf area
FAPAR
snow sea salinity sea level
index
retrievable
air quality
water wind speed & biomass
from space vapour direction
albedo

 extreme diversity
marine habitat soil moisture
properties
of data, applications,
sea state
users temperature
(sea & land)
wave speed
cloud & direction
air pressure deforestation ozone
properties
65
Copernicus Sentinels – First generation
European Commission and ESA Program
Global Monitoring for environment and security

66
New Sentinels to answer evolving user needs

67
Why Microwaves?
Factors affecting the choice of frequency are:
ITU frequency allocation – especially Frequency
Frequency band range Type of Application ITU BW allocations for EO radars
for wideband radars 300 KHz - Foliage/Ground P-band – 6MHz
VHF 300 MHz penetration, biomass
Antenna size – hence beamwidth and 300 MHz - biomass, soil moisture, L-band – 85MHz
P-Band 1 GHz penetration
gain S-band – 150MHz
1 GHz - 2 agriculture, forestry, soil C-band – 320MHz
L-Band GHz moisture
Propagation effects X-band – 600MHz
4 GHz - 8
C-Band GHz ocean, land, agriculture Ku-band – 500MHz
Ambiguities (range, Doppler)
8 GHz - 12 agriculture, ocean, high Ka-band – 500MHz
Technology Readiness and Availability X-Band GHz resolution radar
14 GHz - glaciology (snow cover
of microwave components (HPAs, Ku-Band 18 GHz mapping), land, ocean,
27 GHz - high resolution radars,
Antennas, Digital Functions, etc.) Ka-Band 47 GHz snow/ice, ocean

P L S C X Ku K Ka Q V W

0.5 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 GHz

68
Main Spaceborne Radars Types
Among various applications, the most employed microwave active instruments for earth observation remote
sensing are:
Scatterometers Altimeters Synthetic Aperture Radars
(Wind speed) (Sea Surface Anomaly) (Imaging Applications)

• biomass estimation
• monitoring sea-ice zones and the polar
• ocean surface wind vectors for use environment
primarily in weather forecasting • Ocean and Coast ( Ocean Waves • mapping in support of humanitarian aid
and climate research , Ocean Currents and Topography, in crisis situations
• soil surface layer, surface SWH) • surveillance of marine environments
roughness, and vegetation • Land (Topography/Mapping ) • monitoring land surface motion risks
• sea ice extent, permafrost • Snow and Ice ( Sea Ice ) • mapping of land surfaces: forest, water
boundary, desertification • Atmosphere ( Winds ) and soil, agriculture 69
Main Spaceborne Radars Types
Among various applications, the most employed microwave active instruments for earth observation remote
sensing are:
Scatterometers Altimeters Synthetic Aperture Radars
(Wind speed) (Sea Surface Height) (Imaging Applications)

Radar Architectures differentiate mainly due to the following aspects/constraints

• the type of acquisition mode/geometry (e.g. nadir looking/side looking)

• the type of parameter of interest (that strictly depends on the application)
• the level of the desired performance (e.g. Swath size/resolution, radiometric accuracy)
Radiometers
These three factors strongly influence the features of the technology needed for each of the
radar type and the their development trends
70
 30+ years of C-band SARs developments in Europe

• Phased Array • Phased Array

• Dual Pol • Dual Pol
• No Phased Array
• 320 T/R Modules - 10W • 560 T/R Modules – 16W
• Single Pol
• Antenna Size: • Antenna Size:
• Single Amplification
10mx1.3m 12.3mx0.84m
• Antenna Size: 10mx1m
• BW: 16MHz • BW: up to 100MHz
• BW: 15MHz
• Resolution: 28x28m - • Resolution: 5x5 – 5x20 -
• Resolution: 26x30m (rg-
150x150m (rg-az) 20x40m (rg-az)
az)
• Swath Width: 100km- • Swath Width: 80km-
• Swath Width: 100km
400km 250km - 400km
• No scanning in Elevation
• ScanSAR possible • ScanSAR/TOPS possible
71
Examples of SARs with Active Antennas
L-band C-band X-band

ALOS-2
Sentinel-1 TerraSAR-X

ROSE-L RadarSat-2 Cosmo-Skymed SG

72
.

Typical SAR Architecture – Sentinel-1 Example

From analysis of the mode requirements the
instrument has to support:
-Fast beam scanning at least in elevation direction is
needed
=>Multi-beam reflector based SAR or
=>Active array antenna SAR

Considering in addition the following points:

-Fast beam scanning in azimuth is required for
TOPS mode
-Wide scan range in elevation requires long focal
length for reflector
-Design experience from ASAR on EnviSat

⇒Active Phased Array Antenna

73
 Typical Radar block diagram

Radar contains:
− Clock for time counting;
− Signal/pulse generator;
− Local oscillator to generate carrier frequency;
− Mixers for up-conversion (modulation);
− High power amplifier (HPA);
− Circulator for signal diplexing;
− Antenna(s);
− Low noise amplifier
(+ additional amplifiers);
− Mixers for down-conversion
(de-modulation);
− Matched filters;
− Detection, sampling and digitization unit;
− Power conditioner (not shown);
− Instrument control unit (not shown).

74
Radar Architecture Overview

Single HPA + Reflector Antenna Single HPA + Phased Array Active Phased Array Antenna

• Simplicity/ Low Cost • Allows shaped beams • Allows shaped beams

• Might require high • Allows beam scanning • Allows beam scanning
power per HPA • Might require high /flexibility
• Potentially high loss power per HPA • Low post-HPA loss
after HPA • Potentially high loss • Graceful degradation
• Slow-scan rate after HPA • Low power per HPA
/mechanically • Need redundancy • Complexity/Cost
• Need redundancy • High power analog • Thermal management
beamforming 75
Synthetic Aperture Radars – An introduction
Sentinel-1  SAR makes use of the platform motion to synthesize
a long virtual antenna through the coherent
processing of a large number of echo-profiles.

 To ensure good coherence, one needs to satisfy:

Antenna length in azimuth (flight direction)
𝑹𝑹 Antenna foot-print 𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 � 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 <
2

0 Hyperbola 2 𝑅𝑅� ⁄𝑐𝑐 ≅ 5~6 ms

Tx Rx
Echo-time

Point target
PRI < ∼0.7 ms
Target
within the
antenna
principal
plane

Orbit-time 76
SAR Applications (Land and Maritime monitoring)
Soil Moisture Inversion

Mapping
Deforestation Oil Spill

Change
Detection

Ship Monitoring 77
S1 SAR Applications: Interferometry

Wrapped Images acquired with

Phase Sentinel-1

Oaxaca Earthquake
A magnitude 7.4 Mw
Unwrapped Earthquake happened
phase in the Mexican State
of Oaxaca at 10:29
ET on the 23rd June
2020.
Topographic
Phase

Blue: away from the satellite

Displacement Red: towards the satellite

78
S1 SAR Applications Examples
Example of Sentinel-1 SAR data on assessing flooding Example of Sentinel-1 SAR data processed to map and
affecting Pakistan in 2022 predict (through AI/ML) volcanic eruption activity
Flood map generated thanks to sentinel-1A Data Galapagos Volcanoes

Heavy monsoon rainfall 9 10 time heavier than usual – The graphic on the left shows cumulative displacement
has led to a large part of the country being underwater, between November 2015 and November 2020.
affecting millions of people in Pakistan The graphic on the right shows the detection probability
generated by the machine learning algorithm.

79
Synthetic Aperture Radar Acquisition Modes

Typical SAR acquisition modes:

Sentinel -1 Modes
• Stripmap

• ScanSAR

• SpotLight

• TopSAR

• ..and several others..!

Each mode satisfies different needs , depending on the type of application

80
 Radar Architectures based on Active Antennas

Fully Analog Tx Analog – Rx Digital Fully Digital

BFN / T/R
DAC
Distr Network
ADC
SA ADC

DAC

ADC
ADC

DAC
To/From To/From
DAC

ADC Digital Digital

Electronics Electronics
To/From DAC

Digital ADC ADC

Electronics

DAC

ADC ADC

Other typical configuration employ separate Intermediate hybrid analog/digital

Typical Legacy Spaceborne Radars (e.g. Tx/Rx apertures beamforming configurations are often
Sentinel-1) (e.g. Tx wide beam and many Rx narrow beams) employed 81
Sentinel-1 Architecture : Tile Example

82
Next Steps? Digital beamforming
Digital beamforming can enable higher performance (spatial resol, swath) and flexibility in future SAR systems

SCORE
MAPS

Tx
• Tx Antenna Illuminates Wide
Swath and Wide Doppler BW
• Multiple Rx Antennas
Rx Illuminate Wide Doppler
Spectrum
• Multiple Rx Antennas Scan-on-
receive to illuminate full swath
and re-gain SNR

Swath Width Wide Doppler BW

given by Tx (i.e. Az
Antenna Resolution) is MAPS: Multiple Aperture Processing for SAR
preserved thanks
to MAPS SCORE: Scan-On-REceive 83
Scan On Receive (SCORE) – a closer look
SCan On Receive (SCORE) technique
• Recovery of signal energy on RX
• Limiting the RF power need of the instrument, thanks to higher Rx antenna gain
• Improvement of ambiguity performance
• Very Fast time beamforming , e.g. scanning speed ~0.1deg/usec
• Potential need to have frequency dispersive beam on Rx in order to avoid pulse extension loss
• Natural implementation is based on DRA+ DBF, but focal array-fed reflector configuration with digital (or even analog) feed switching can be done

SCORE with DRA with frequency dispersion SCORE with array-fed Reflector
Echo elevation angle rate

Reflector SAR with multiple elevation beams. Digital beamforming on receive plays a
crucial role for the reliable separation of the simultaneously arriving radar echoes 84
from
range-ambiguous positions (image credit: DLR)
MAPS: Multiple Azimuth Phase Center Sampling
Beamforming technique to suppress ambiguous signal returns,
enabling higher azimuth resolution
• Example for one point after integration on ground (grey solid line)
• Edge of the ScanSAR Burst
• Acquisition of integration bandwidth necessary for the resolution
(grey dotted line)

• Top figure: Wide transmit azimuth antenna pattern to illuminate

the swath
• Wide Illumination necessary due to high resolution
• Centre figure: Receive Pattern of a single azimuth channel
• Ambiguities are received with very high gain
• Bottom figure: Receive Pattern after recombination of 5 azimuth
channels
• The first 4 ambiguities are perfectly suppressed 85
Integration of DBF within the antenna

DBF
First demonstrator integrating DBF
units
functions directly within the phased array
antenna.
Courtesy of Airbus D&S GmbH, IMST GmbH, Da-Design Oy:
Radio Freq. Unit, DLR, Thales Alenia Space Italia
86
Planar Antenna or Reflector for SARs?
Recent Large deployable Reflector European
Planar Antenna
developments pave the way for new high
• Pros: resolution Earth Observation instruments
 Flexible Beam Steering
 Map an arbitrarily wide swath (weight change only)
 Inherent ATI
 Less challenging pointing knowledge and accuracy
•Cons:
 Mass
 Instrument complexity (e.g. multichannel in azimuth)
 Power demand
•Better suited for lower orbits (i.e., S1 orbit )

Reflector Antenna
• Pros:
• Large Aperture:
 High Gain -> good for SNR!
 Low power demand
• Low mass
• Potentially Simplified instrument architecture
•Cons:
• ATI
• Pointing Knowledge and accuracy
• Electronic beam steering and access range (access range 
feed elements)
• Better suited for higher orbits (i.e., 800-1500 km orbit )
Courtesy of HPS and LSS 87
Future SAR Missions
Future SAR earth observation missions and their demanding imaging requirements will require :
 large antennas
 Reflectors antennas, array fed reflector antennas
and/or
 Enhancement of DRAs (Direct Radiating Arrays) in terms of bandwidth, efficiency, flexibility and cost
 Digital Beam Forming (DBF) capability
 MAPS: Multiple Aperture Processing for SAR
 SCORE: Scan-On-Receive
 MEB SAR: Multiple elevation beam SAR
 HRWS :High Resolution Wide Swath

 Slow-varying PRI /Staggered PRI

The combination of the abovementioned features allows to achieved the desired performance

88
Future SAR Missions concepts

DLR courtesy,
Advanced Processing
Techniques for Next
Generation Multichannel
SARs, ESA Contract No.
4000116591/16/NL/FE

89
New Space trend
• Increasing demand of Earth Observation data and in the specific case of Synthetic Aperture Radar data
• Variety of application fields
• Commercial entities developing small platforms (nano- and smallsats) carrying SAR payload on board

Image Credit: Euroconsult 90

SAR Newspace Commercial Rise
• Many companies from all over the world :
• USA : PredaSAR , Capella Space, Umbra Lab, XpressSAR, Trident Space, EOS SAR
• Europe : IcEye
• China : Spacety
• Japan : Synspective, iQPS

• Extreme verticalization between the different “phases” of a SAR development :

• Designing  Developing  Integrating  Testing  Launching

• Reduced cost per platform  possibility of launching constellations  enables multistatic applications and
improves revisit times
Image Credit:
Euroconsult

91
New Space SAR summary

Company Frequency N of satellites in Revisit

Name Power Cost Band Launch Mass constellation Altitude Time Cost per Kg
2021 150 Kg 6 Ca. 500 Km 2/3 hr
EOS SAR 15 M X-Band 0.1

2020 150 Kg 25 600 Km 2/3 h

Synspective 1000 W 15 M X-Band 0.1

2021 185 n/a Ca. 500 Km Ca. 12 hr

Spacety n/a C-Band n/a

2022 100-200 Kg 8 425 Km <4 ore

XpressSAR 75 M X-Band 0.38

42 - 65 2021 300 Kg 48 Ca. 500 Km <1 hour

Trident Space X-Band 0.22
M
2020 50 Kg 12 515 Km <1 hr
UmbraLab 550W 3.5 - 5 M X-Band 0.1

2018 <40Kg 36/44 525Km 3/6 hr

Capella 1 1000W <15M X-Band 0.38

Iceye X1 2000W/4000W 10/15 M X- Band 2018 70Kg 18 3 hr 3 hr 0.21

92
New Space SAR : examples

X-1
Haisi-1 image
image (IcEye)
(Spacety)

UmbraSAR image (Umbra Lab)

Sequoia image (Capella Space)

93
Next generation SAR Missions

Conventional performances
Sentinel-1 NG for current SAR payloads
Envisat
Sentinel-1 EW ScanSAR

Sentinel-1 IW
ROSE-L

Envisat SM
ERS 1/2
Sentinel-1 SM
HRWS

94
Data Rate: Upper Limit
Data Rate Upper Limit for conventual SAR instruments
• General Simplified Equation for single channel Instrument: 𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 ≈ 𝑁𝑁𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 2𝑁𝑁𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃
• Just Data, no overhead
• By applying some general simplifications and basic restrictions for the mode design of conventional
SAR, an upper limit for the instrument data rate can be derived:
𝑐𝑐0 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑅𝑅𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
• Upper Data Limit: 𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 < �
𝛿𝛿𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺 6.02 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

• The data rate limit is invers proportional to the

ground resolution 𝛿𝛿𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺 and proportional to the
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑅𝑅𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

95
Data Rate: DBF
• Digital Beamforming techniques allow for new ways of SAR swath
design, pushing the boundaries of conventual SAR instruments
• SCORE: Wider Swath with same resolution
• MAPS: Higher Azimuth Resolution without Ambiguity
Issues
• FSCAN: Trading Frequency (Resolution) vs Time (Swath
Width)

Fig: Exemplary Display of the SCORE technique Fig: Exemplary Display of the FSCAN technique Fig: MAPS DBF Example 96
Data Rate: Instrument Comparison

• Mode Quality Phase A/B1

Parameter: Launch 2028

𝑙𝑙𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠,𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅
�𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑠𝑠𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺,2𝐷𝐷
• Circle Diameter
proportional to data
rate
• Increasing with wider
swath and higher
resolution
• Instruments based on
DBF architecture show
significant increase in
data rate

97
Data Volume: Instrument Comparison
Satellite Acquisition Number of Digital Orbit Duty Cycle Mode Operation Data Volume
Channels per Times
Polarization

5 min SM, 15 min

Sentinel 1 Pre-planned 1 60% – 60 min >400 Gbit
IW, 40 min WV

4 Elevation x 5 Azimuth
20 min DP/QP, 30
ROSE-L Pre-planned (Azimuth Channels are 50% – 50 min 4 Tbit
min WV
downlinked)

Projected: >5 Elevation 5 min SM, 5 min

43% Average – 40 min 3 Tbit
Sentinel 1 x >5 Azimuth (Azimuth IW, 30 min WV
Pre-planned
- NG Channels are 15 min IW, 35 min
downlinked 53% Peak – 50 min 4.8 Tbit
WV

• Table gives the total Data Volume for one exemplary orbit and acquisition plan for the different instruments
• New SAR instrument architectures lead to a massive increase in data rate and total amount of data
• WV = Wave Mode – Imaging mode with very small swaths and reduced transmit Duty Cycle
• High demand for increasing orbit duty cycle as well as swath width for future missions will lead to more data
• Need for advanced data compression schemes and/or on-board processing! 98
CIMR Mission: The need of detecting RF Interference
Monitoring the Cryosphere, as part of the European Integrated EU Policy for the Arctic
Providing sea ice concentration, sea surface temperature, thin sea ice thickness, sea surface salinity and
wind speed over the ocean
• Embarking 55 microwave radiometer channels observing from L- to Ka-band, for a
total of 11GHz aggregated bandwidth
• Observations can be significantly affected by ground emitted Radio Frequency
Interference, leading to reduction/loss of data
• CIMR embarks an on-board RFI processor to detect and mitigate interference in quasi
real time, reducing the amount of data to be stored and transferred to ground

L-band interferes in Europe 99

Your typical Radar (Digital) Back-end…
Functions
• Waveform Generation
• DDS, I/Q Modulation, Up-conversion
• Analogue Waveform Conversion
• Timing Control
• Coherent triggering of Tx and Rx
• Digitisation & Processing
• Analogue Echo Digitisation, Down-conversion
• Processing, Formatting and Science TM Tx

Building Blocks
• Logic Device – DSP & Control
• Clock Distribution & Synchronisation
• ADC – Analogue-to-Digital Converter
• DAC – Digital-to-Analogue Converter 100
… but not so typical needs!

Flow-down of requirements is demanding

more from the back-end …
• Direct Conversion up to C-band, which means higher
input bandwidth
• Multiple RF Rx Channels (per polarization)
• Data Processing and Reduction such as On-board
DBF
• Higher Science TM Data Rates, in the order of Gbps

101
Multiple RF Channel Rx at the back-end
• Acquisition of multiple RF channels requires coherence and determinism in signal sampling among all
channels, which means a certain Channel-to-Channel accuracy in sampling to avoid phase errors, typically
better than picosecond level (10-12)
• Challenges address by:
• Advanced clock distribution and synchronisation, like JESD204, both for internal and external modules
• PCB Layout for signal integrity and length matching

JESD204 System

TI LMK04832
102
JESD204 Support
 High Sample Rate Data Acquisition
• A consequence of higher sampling rates usually employed in direct conversion is higher data rates (Gbps),
which in turn complicate the interface with the Logic Device (usually FPGA) as well as the design.
• Challenges addressed by:
• Advanced ADC/DAC which perform Digital Down/Up Conversion, thus reducing the amount of data.
• Example: DDC at ADC with sub-Nyquist sampling of L-band for EO can reduce I/Q data rate from
30 Gbps to 3 Gbps
• Usage of HSSLs for ADC/DAC and Logic Device interconnection, together with JESD204 protocol

TI ADC12DJ3200QML-SP
Source: Texas Instruments
103
High-Speed Data Acquisition and Processing
• The high-speed data acquisition and processing required by the digital back-end such as DBF are also ushering
the introduction of new Logic Devices, namely FPGAs like Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale or the Microchip PolarFire,
with their DSP capabilities as well as HSSLs.
• Challenges posed:
• Radiation Effects’ sensitivity, requiring introducing SEE mitigation techniques at device level, but also
considerations at System level since these devices are big contributors to the availability of the
instrument
• Power Distribution Design, both in number of different PoLs as well as load-step
• Example: Xilinx Versal can have ~20 different power rails
• PCB technology and assembly, due to sophisticated packages
• Thermal Design, to cope with latest FPGA power dissipation
• Example: Xilinx KU060 can reach 20W for some scenarios

Xilinx Versal Power Rails

Source: Xilinx Power Estimator
104
Building Block: Universal Processing Module (UPM)
• State-of-the-art Digital Back-end Building Block
• DSP with Space-grade Xilinx Ultrascale
KU060 FPGA
• Support for multi-channel digitisation, both
within UPM and among several UPMs
• Direct conversion up to C-band
• 8x Rx Channels, 1x Tx Channels
• Up to 3.2 Gsps digitisation
UPM EM+ Test
• Enabler for compact radar instruments
• Single module can support all functions:
Waveform Generation, Digitisation, UPM EM+
Processing and Timing Control
• Possibility to embed Instrument Control
and run Application Software
UPM EBB
• Developed by Airbus Defence and Space Pictures courtesy of
105
Airbus Defence and Space
R&D Radar Central Electronics
• State-of-the-art Digital Back-end R&D, providing a modular
architecture with 3 building blocks
• First Stage Processor, for Echo Acquisition and Processing
• Second Stage Processor, for Data Aggregation and Processing
• Waveform Generator, for signal generation and control
• Main characteristics
• DSP with Space-grade Microchip PolarFire FPGA
• Support for multi-channel digitisation, both within FSP and
among several FSPs
• Direct conversion up to C-band
• 4x Rx Channels per FSP
• 1x Tx Channel per WFG
• Up to 3.2 Gsps digitisation
• Developed by Thales Alenia Space in Italy
RCE FSP EM 106
Future Outlooks for Digital Back-end
Towards more Bandwidth and Integration
• Higher bandwidth capabilities – even up to Ka band – enabling more SDR capabilities
• More DSP at ADC/DAC component level, to offload the logic devices
• Faster data exchange interfaces, to cope with higher sample rates
• More integration, to ease board design and optimise SWaP

Towards more Data Processing On-board

• Increased DSP capabilities, Beamforming, RFI, etc.
• Science Product Generation on Board
• Machine Learning (ML) On-board Applications

107
Cognitive remote sensing

Tip and Cue Cognitive Radar

Distributed Multi-Satellite Single Satellite

Optimised use of resources/

Fast reaction time New Applications
Better Performance

108
“Cognitive” Microwave Instruments – is it worth?
Cognitive Capabilities can in principle be applied to a range of spaceborne microwave instruments potentially
enabling new applications, with potential advantages on latency, performance, system sizing, operations:
- Synthetic Aperture Radars
- E.g. fast-responding tip-and-cue SAR cognitive system identifying and tracking moving icebergs, or
ships, or any other objects of interest (e.g. classification/segmentation,...)
- Microwave Radiometers
- E.g. fast-responding tip-and-cue Atmospheric Radiometer identifying critical atmospheric phenomena,
and then observing it at higher resolution and integration time, for better scientific return
- E.g. real-time flagging and classification of RFI, then reconfiguring in real-time for RFI mitigation
- Weather (Precipitation/Rain) Radars
- E.g. fast-responding tip-and-cue Atmospheric Radiometer identifying critical atmospheric phenomena,
and then observing it at higher resolution and accuracy for better weather forecast
- Radar Altimeters
- E.g. tip-and-cue Radar Altimeter identifying certain SSH mesoscale phenomena or catastrophic events
109
SAR Data – Sentinel-1 Example

Sentinels Data Products List and Sentinel-1 Image of Nice, France 110
SAR Image formation processing stages

Raw SAR Data Range Compressed Data SAR image

Range Compression Azimuth Compression

Advanced training on Ocean Remote Sensing, ESA 111

SAR Digital Controller Unit – Payload architecture

Processed L0

Interfacing MMU or OBP

On-board
L0
processor

Quantized L0 Uncompressed L0

Processing within the New interfaces on Digital

Digital Controller Unit Processor Module
112
SAR On-board data processing

Image Formation

L0+ L1 L1+
L0
Analog Signal Range Single Look Ground Range
Raw data
Compressed Complex Detected

Scene
classification
Micro-doppler
classification
Digital Sampling
Range Object
and BAQ Georeferencing
Compression localization
Compression
Azimuth
Compression
Adaptive
Object detection
Compression

Machine learning can be applied to different image formation stage

113
SAR Data driven algorithms – Working areas

Uncompressed Raw data L0 Currently data only synthetic/simulated

• Improvement of data compression
• Processing on full precision data
Optimized Compression Raw Data
~500-5000 Mbit/s

Quantized Raw data L0+

Data can be decoded from Sentinel-1 L0
• Efficient Single-Look Complex focusing of data
• Data prioritization without SLC
• Real time beam steering
• Micro-doppler analysis
Raw classification

On-board formed image data L1 Data can be formed from Sentinel-1 L0

• Patch Segmentation
• Object Detection
• Tasking
Image formation CNN inference*
~3-30 Mbit/s
~1-10 Mbit/W
“Science on-board”? L2
*ZCU102 114
Thank you for your
attention !
Q/A

116