X-Band Sampling Technology Demonstration

Abstract

The technical objective of this project is to simplify the Ground Station architecture currently used by European Space Agency in Deep Space Antenna by implementing the concept of Software Defined Radio. This paper summarizes the experimental results obtained at the preliminary and detailed design phases. The reception of RF signals has been sampled using a commercially available Track and Hold amplifier and digitized using an Analogue-to-Digital Converter. The transmission of RF signal has been synthetized using high-frequency Digital to Analogue Converters.