학술논문

MDSP - a Multichannel Digitizer and Spectral Processor for Smallsat Radiometer Applications
Document Type
Conference
Source
2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100) Aerospace Conference (50100), 2021 IEEE. :1-11 Mar, 2021
Subject
Aerospace
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Computing and Processing
Engineering Profession
General Topics for Engineers
Robotics and Control Systems
Signal Processing and Analysis
Transportation
Radiometers
Radio frequency
Baseband
RF signals
Small satellites
Prototypes
Receivers
Language
Abstract
This paper presents the MDSP, a modular, scalable spectrometer baseband processing unit appropriate for use in general smallsat (∼3U) missions. Currently, THz and GHz radiometers have one RF front-end and one back-end spectrometer. Modern technological advances have permitted the front-end receivers to be extremely compact and operate non-cryogenic. However, to meet the needs of Ionospheric Thermospheric Mesopheric (ITM) and Magnetospheric-Ionospheric (M-I) coupling sciences, one needs multiple THz and GHz sensors, making a scalable Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) profile a key factor for resource-limited missions. To meet this need, we propose an integrated, scalable, multichannel, spectrometer baseband processing unit that accepts multiple down-converted RF signals from several independent front-end receivers and processes them to obtain multiple radiance spectra simultaneously with minimum amounts of power. We present the formulated requirements for the low SWaP scalable spectrometer back-end, followed by the derived architecture and design. A brief discussion of parts selection is followed by presentation of a prototype hardware/firmware solution and test results. A concluding discussion of alternative uses for the multi-channel integrated base-band receiver design are presented as well.