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Santarpia, D. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Santarpia, D. E..

Status of NASA's multibeam communications technology program

Progress with prototype components for demonstrating an acceptable performance level for multibeam 30/20 GHz satellite communications scheduled for service in 1988 is summarized. Numerous companies were contracted by NASA for the various components and subsystems, which include 20 GHz transmitters, a traveling wave tube transmitter, an IMPATT amplifier, a GaAs FET amplifier, a 30 GHz low noise receiver, a trunking matrix switch, and a baseband processor. The key system is a 20 GHz offset dual reflector antenna with shaped surfaces for multibeam transmission. Tests to date have indicated success at meeting the performance objectives.

Santarpia, D. E.

A 10, 6-micrometer laser receiver RF subsystem

A simplified laser receiver carrier tracking loop is described. The laser carrier is optically mixed with a locally generated 10.6 micrometer signal, thereby translating the received signal to an IF signal that varies between dc and GHz. This signal is fed to a second order carrier tracking loop that contains a transistor LC oscillator tuned by a varactor over a 1 GHz range; transistor shunt capacitance increases the upper frequency bound of the oscillator in a high Doppler environment.

Santarpia, D. E.

A 10.6 micron laser-receiver RF subsystem

One of the problems inherent in the use of optical communication systems is the exceedingly high Doppler shift which can be expected. With the recent development of stable, linear, octavebandwidth, voltage-tunable oscillators, this problem has been solved. A laboratory tracking receiver which is capable of tracking a 1-GHz frequency shift at rates up to 12 MHz/s with subsequent coherent data demodulation was designed and tested. This work demonstrates that the design and fabrication of an RF subsystem, utilizing coherent demodulation of data, for wideband communications systems is now both feasible and practical.

Santarpia, D. E.