DeWITT — Anaren, Inc. of DeWitt will use a $7 million contract to work on advanced beamforming assembly for use in the Eutelsat Quantum satellite program. Airbus Defence & Space, a division of French aircraft manufacturer Airbus Group, awarded the contract. Beamforming is a “signal-processing technique used to control the directionality of the transmission and […]
DeWITT — Anaren, Inc. of DeWitt will use a $7 million contract to work on advanced beamforming assembly for use in the Eutelsat Quantum satellite program.
Airbus Defence & Space, a division of French aircraft manufacturer Airbus Group, awarded the contract.
Beamforming is a “signal-processing technique used to control the directionality of the transmission and reception of radio signals,” a definition provided on the website of Fremont, California–based Quantenna Communications.
Airbus Defence & Space is developing the quantum satellite program for Eutelsat as part of a public-private partnership with the European Space Agency, Anaren said in a Jan. 8 news release.
Anaren is a DeWitt–based developer of high-frequency technology deployed in space, defense, and wireless-infrastructure applications.
Paris, France–based Eutelsat Communications is an operator of communications satellites that are used by broadcasting organizations, telecommunications companies, Internet-service providers, government agencies, and other customers, Anaren said.
The company has a workforce of about 1,000 employees in 32 countries worldwide.
This new satellite-demonstration program is going to have a beam of radio-frequency (RF) energy, which can be moved, essentially, electronically around the earth’s surface, says Mark Kosalek, VP of business development for Anaren’s space & defense group. He spoke with CNYBJ on Jan. 12.
It will provide satellite-television and Internet-service providers the “ability to steer the beams into certain, more highly populated areas and be a little more flexible in how they use that communications service.”
“Essentially this beamformer is a key technology to form the beam and shape the RF beam and steer it to certain, desired locations on the earth,” says Kosalek.
It’s the first time that a commercial-satellite operator is attempting the technology in space, he adds.
Anaren will deliver its first flight-set hardware to Airbus Defence & Space in summer 2017, with additional system tests and production anticipated over subsequent years.
The hardware that Anaren will manufacture for Airbus will be about the size of a microwave oven, says Kosalek.
The Eutelsat Quantum program will feature the “world’s first fully reconfigurable” commercial satellite, allowing Eutelsat to adapt the satellite in response to new demands in coverage, bandwidth, power, frequency, and even changes in its orbital position, according to the Anaren news release.
