A Great Year for Amplifiers:
Q&A with Mike Gold

Mike: Over the past decade, we’ve seen a shift from traveling wave tube-based amplifiers (TWTA’s) to solid-state amplifier technology. This shift occurred because solid-state amplifiers allowed for higher power efficiency, better reliability, and smaller size, weight, and power. Block upconverters, BUCs, as we call them today, further shifted the market by allowing for frequency conversion and amplification in one outdoor package.

The first BUCs were GaAs (Gallium Arsenide) based. But seeking further improvements in size, weight, and power, a few manufacturers, such as Terrasat, have shifted some production to GaN (Gallium Nitride) based. These newer, GaN-based BUCs, although very popular, were prone to some inherent issues. The most important being a limitation on the use in multicarrier operations such as the “Memory Effect”, which limits their use to a very narrow spectral range.  However, recent improvements in the GaN devices available to the market have allowed some manufacturers, such as Terrasat, to overcome this problem, by enabling our GaN BUC’s to operate across the full band with multicarrier access. This improvement will propel the GaN-based BUCS as the leading technology in this market.

Mike: Undoubtedly, we will see further improvements in power efficiencies in the BUC market. This will lead to more BUCs replacing TWTA’s in the market. However, the biggest change may be on the cybersecurity side of technology. Almost every component in the satellite communications link is addressable via IP technology. Most of the equipment in the communications chain has hardened to prevent security intrusions by outsiders. Unfortunately, although BUCs have updated to allow access via ethernet/IP technology, almost all BUCs have relatively simple PW protection, if any, at all.  One recent test by a large government contractor showed that many BUCs on the market could be successfully “hacked” in a few minutes.

Terrasat has recently introduced a “Cyber Hardened” feature to their BUCs that incorporates SNMPv3, SSHv2, secure firmware upgrades, and encrypted web pages. The new cyber hardened IBUCs will effectively implement security management control and assures that end to end message transmission delivery will not be altered. This technology will soon be adopted as a standard in all BUCs, lest they become the “weakest link” in the chain.

Mike: Certainly, the satellite market, as a whole, is always looking for more available bandwidth. The Q and V bands are being researched heavily as valuable additions to the current C, Ku, and Ka-band mainstays of the market. However, the amplifier market typically is driven by the actual satellite capacity available in the sky. Currently, there are only a few real satellites with Q and V band capacity. There are also some very interesting LEO and MEO constellations with Q and V bands in implementation or in the planning stage. As these systems become real, naturally more amplifier manufacturers, such as Terrasat, will adopt them into their product lines.

Mike: Terrasat has always been a technology leader in the BUC market. We were the first company to realize that BUCs needed the same management and control access, and intelligence, like the rest of the communication chain. Therefore, the creation of the IBUC, or Intelligent BUC. Over the next year, Terrasat will be pushing on two fronts. One, the expansion of the new IBUC 3 product line. The IBUC 3 is the latest generation intelligent BUC that reduces size and weight but keeps the same power efficiencies as the previous generation. The second front will be the expansion of the higher power BUCs needed to address the growing hub and gateway market. With the creation and deployment of multiple LEO and MEO systems, Terrasat sees a need to accelerate further the adoption of BUCs over current TWTA deployments. Over the next year, Terrasat will be making some significant strides in this market.