Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

Satellite communication has made a major contribution to the pattern of international communications, whetherx000D
in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) or non-GEO. The engineering aspect of satellite communications combinesx000D
such diverse topics as antennas, radio wave propagation, signal processing, data communication, modulation,x000D
detection, coding, filtering, orbital mechanics, and electronics. To satisfy the future traffic increase, the Kax000D
frequency band from 17.5 to 21.2 GHz is designed to provide a high service availability with much higher datax000D
rates. This proposal addresses a subject of current interest for ORBITAL RESARCH Ltd., a successful,x000D
privately owned manufacturer and distributor of Custom BDCs (Block Down Converters), LNBs (Low Noisex000D
Block down converters) and System Interface Products for satellite communications. Through the ENGAGEx000D
program a research team from INRS-EMT in collaboration with the R&D department of the industrial partnerx000D
ORBITAL RESARCH will design and characterize new microwave circuits to improve the efficiency of thex000D
LNB (Low Noise Block-downconverter) for satellite communications. Important issues related to bandwidthx000D
tunability, noise, center-frequency tunability, and selectivity must be achieved over the Ka-band. Substratex000D
Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology presents an excellent trade-off between high-Q, compactness, easyx000D
integration with other planar circuits and low-cost fabrication process. In this context, a tunable SIW bandpassx000D
filter over the whole Ka-band will be the heart of the project. The proposed project will be highly costx000D
effective because of the available facilities at INRS-EMT RF laboratory, where a critical mass of infrastructurex000D
and resources can be exploited for its success. The objectives of the proposed research are (i) to design,x000D
develop, and characterize microwave circuits (mainly filters), adapted to the specific needs of the industrialx000D
partner, and (ii) training of highly qualified personnel to respond to the scientific and technologic challenges ofx000D
our society.