Design and Realisation of Ku-Band Tele-Command and Ranging Receiver for Satellite Application

Ku band TCR receiver is designed and developed for GEOSAT applications of Indian space program. The receiver has been designed and implemented on modular based approach. Major modules are RF front end module, IF, LO and baseband .The paper discusses the design aspects of each module highlighting the design challenges at Ku band. The integrated characterization has been discussed with the receiver performance over various qualification test phases. The receiver incorporates synthesizer based Local oscillator design which has the advantage of no tuning elements and also gives the flexibility of setting the frequency as per the mission requirements at ground or tuning the receiver over 500MHz, allowing it to cater to in-orbit programmability requirement. The receiver has a command threshold of -110dBm and ranging threshold of -105dBm.The specifications, tests and the results are presented in detail. The developed receiver operates over 12.75-13.25 GHz band .The receiver is qualified for space use.