Photonic technologies are key enablers to satisfy the requirements of future Terabit/s communication satellites. The ability of Photonics to handle high data rates and frequencies is critical in this scenario, where current purely RF technologies are limited in SWaP and performance. However, the use of photonics devices is currently restricted to a few demonstrations in non-critical equipment and with limited degree of integration. PhLEXSAT will increase the maturity level of several key photonic devices and modules to TRL5, designing, fabricating and testing 1) Photonic sampler, 2) ultra-low jitter photonic clock for precise sampling, 3) Photonic-assisted ADC and DAC for digital channelizers for Q/V-band operation and 4) on-board digital processing firmware. Miniaturization will be achieved by fabricating and integrating a modulator photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and high-linear photodiode PIC with electronics in the photonic ADC and DAC components. PhLEXSAT will integrate and demonstrate such building blocks in a test bed proving the suitability of the proposed architecture for Tbps-like, software defined HTS payloads with hundreds of channels with flexible bandwidth allocation up to 1GHz/channel, demonstrating a flexible photo-digital channelizer for high capacity reconfigurable payloads, enabling flexible frequency plans and channelization and dynamic coverage for Ku/Ka/Q/V operation. PhLEXSAT consortium comprises the multidisciplinary skills needed to achieve its objectives and fully exploit its results, with partners representing the whole value chain, from space-grade hardware developers to communications satellite integrators and operators. PhLEXSAT builds on the results of the previous FP7 project PHASER and is complementary to developments made by its partners in previous and existing ESA and EC Projects. PhLEXSAT success will contribute to enhance EU competitiveness and non-n-dependence by developing critical technologies for the EU satellite industry.

The satellite market experiences a paradigm shift with the rise of VHTS that is challenging the capabilities of existing SatCom systems. Under increasing capacity/flexibility and stringent SWaP requirements primes are embracing a technology migration relying on photonics. TAS is the first prime to introduce optical interconnects in a commercial digital processor and this is expected to open the opportunity for photonics penetration in every part of the satellite payload (P/L). However the current critical photonic building blocks fail to deliver the big promise for high-performance and low SWaP photonics-enabled VHTS. These are the opto-electronic (O/E) interfaces - transceivers, modulators and photodetectors - that are deployed in the highest volumes and connect equipment at the edge and within the payload. They suffer from limitations in speed, bandwidth, reliability and most importantly size and power consumption which are still off-target, while most of them are available from US. SIPhoDiAS aims to advance these components to address O/E performance, size and power and at the same time enhance their reliability and demonstrate flight-ready parts at TRL 7, enabling for the first time photonic P/L systems that hit the right SWaP targets. SIPhoDiAS will deliver the following impressive advancements: up to 224 Gb/s radiation hard transceivers 4.5x faster and 8.5x more energy efficient than state-of-the-art (SOTA), 50 GHz modulators 2 times smaller having 7 times more bandwidth per unit area than SOTA, 40 GHz photo-detectors 50% lighter, with 4.5 times more bandwidth per unit area and 66% better responsivity. Modules will be system integrated and tested in representative sub-systems to show optical interconnect demonstrators running 350% faster with 80% less power and 50% less mass and photonic-RF frequency converters extended up to Q/V band (40-50 GHz) at 50% less mass. SIPhoDiAS technoloy will be made in Europe and will contribute to the European SatCom roadmaps.