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RF Power Amplifiers for LISA Pathfinder Spacecraft
Contract: Contraves Space AG (Switzerland) and EADS-Astrium (UK) - 2005
  
Due for launch in 2009, the LISA Pathfinder will test the technology needed to develop the ambitious ESA/NASA LISA mission. LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) aims at improving our knowledge of the universe by detecting gravitational waves, a phenomenon predicted by Einstein in 1916. LISA relies on technologies that are yet to be tested, so could not be built without its precursor LISA Pathfinder.
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The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft will carry two test packages: the LISA Technology Package (LTP), provided by European institutes and industry, and the Disturbance Reduction System (DRS), provided by NASA. |
Credits EADS-Astrium & NASA
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Two RF solid state power amplifiers are currently being developed by ERZIA SPACE under contract for Contraves Space AG and EADS-Astrium. The amplifiers will fly into the LISA LTP instrument as part of the Acousto Optical Modulation Unit being developed by Contraves and will serve as RF exciters for the laser modulators. The amplifiers will provide 32 dBm of output power at 80 MHz with a 50 % Efficiency. The amplifiers are a full system in themselves as they internally include an electronic attenuator for signal gain control, a gain, driver and power stages, a RF detector for power monitoring and linearizers for both the attenuator control and RF detector response, as well as temperature compensation techniques.
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