On the development of a Ka-band transceiver for cubesat satellites

This paper describes the feasibility study of a Ka-band transceiver specifically designed for small satellites and CubeSat operation. The transponder is conceived to ensure up to 100 Mbps data rate with a target power consumption of 20 W and an overall volume of 1.5 U (antenna not included). To keep the cost as low as possible, commercial, off-the-shelf electronic components are used whenever possible. Exploiting a data communication interface like the one proposed, the small satellites market could be opened to new applications such as remote sensing, Earth observation and commercial telecommunications.