AMCAD is collaborating with the French Space Agency (CNES). As part of this collaboration, AMCAD is contributing to the development of an advanced library of signals and probes for CNES’s VISION system simulator. This initiative aims to measure the transmission quality of space telecom signals within an RF chain.

Given the increasing complexity of upcoming telecom payloads, it becomes essential to envision a rapid diagnostic method. The measurement of Error Vector Magnitude (EVM), already used by the LTE standard, proves to be a suitable merit factor for this diagnostic.

Utilizing the Comlib library and realistic models from VISION or also simple one frequency measurements, test scenarios are currently in development. These tests will help identify potential faults and malfunctions within the space telecommunications transmission chain. Various metrics complement the EVM measurement, highlighting different faults such as additive noise, phase noise, and the effects of non-linearities such as a complete signal over noise and intermodulation (C/N+I) analysis aiming to optimize the payload operating point.

This collaboration underscores the significance of these advancements from the preliminary design to the Assembly, Integration, and Testing, as well as the In-Flight Acceptance Test of future space missions. This joint initiative demonstrates AMCAD’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation in the field of space telecommunications.