Burst Mode ASIC-Based Modem

The NASA Lewis Research Center is sponsoring the Advanced Communication Technology Insertion (ACTION) for Commercial Space Applications program. The goal of the program is to expedite the development of new technology with a clear path towards productization and enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers. The industry has made significant investment in developing ASIC-based modem technology for continuous-mode applications and has made investigations into East, reliable acquisition of burst-mode digital communication signals. With rapid advances in analog and digital communications ICs, it is expected that more functions will be integrated onto these parts in the near future. In addition custom ASIC's can also be developed to address the areas not covered by the other IC's. Using the commercial chips and custom ASIC's, lower-cost, compact, reliable, and high-performance modems can be built for demanding satellite communication application. This report outlines a frequency-hop burst modem design based on commercially available chips.