Dual-Conversion Microwave Down Converter for Nanosatellite Electronic Warfare Systems

Abstract

In this work, a microwave down converter is proposed for nanosatellite electronic warfare applications. It provides high spurious suppression by exploiting a dual-conversion architecture and premium performance in terms of noise figure and linear dynamic range. The system design takes advantage of commercial off-the-shelf components, thus allowing for both fast and cost-effective prototyping, which are key requirements particularly concerning CubeSat systems. Since different military, commercial, radar and communication systems operate in the 2–18 GHz frequency band, the capability to integrate such kinds of receivers in CubeSats represents the new frontier of the electronic warfare systems. Moreover, due to the wide operating bandwidth, it can be successfully exploited as the receiver for different applications, e.g., satellite communication, radars, etc.

Microstrip Copper Nanowires Antenna Array for Connected Microwave Liquid Sensors

“…The topic is very interesting because employing an antenna as the sensing element enables the design of smart connected sensors directly able to send the measured data. Usually, in a microwave communication system, the antenna is the larger element [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. To this aim, exploiting the antenna itself as the sensing element allows a reduction of the total system size and a high integrated module to be obtained by incorporating the sensor and the communication device on the same substrate.…”