Design and performance of the transmit / receive module of advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) for ENVISAT satellite

A major space-bome radar program is on-going in Europe : the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar supported by the European Space Agency. ASAR makes use of an active antenna with 320 C-Band T/R Modules which are dual H/V polarization, 10 W transmit power, 3 dB receive noise figure and use both discrete FETs (P. HEMTs and Power GaAs FETs) and GaAs MMICs. Commands and DC supply switching are controlled with an integrated ASIC. Overall size is 213×38.4×22 mm3 and weight is 170 gr. Due to the important amount of modules to be manufactured, the design has been put through a very exhaustive industrialization procedure which is detailled below.