Frequency Synthesizer design for Communications Satellite Payloads

Frequency Synthesizer design techniques for Communications Satellite Payloads are discussed. The growing complexity of satellite services, require the necessity to generate and control multiple frequencies simultaneously. They are required to be SEU hard and total dose tolerant and also able to operate over a wider temperature range from −34 °C to +71°C. The design requirements are small size and mass, low phase noise and spectral purity, and low dc power. The requirement for coherent signal processing is achieved by synthesizing all local oscillator signals from a highly stable reference frequency source. A variety of problems relevant to the design of Frequency Synthesizers are addressed.