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Boeing and Ball Aerospace & Technologies have won contracts worth $4.5 million and $2.2 million, respectively, to develop L-band radio frequency power amplifiers for GPS satellites, Military & Aerospace Electronics reported Friday.
John Keller writes the technology is intended to make the satellites more compact and power efficient as part of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate program.
Ball Aerospace and Boeing’s space and intelligence systems unit will work with Northrop Grumman‘s aerospace systems unit, which earlier won a $7 million contract, to design technologies that enable direct digital synthesis.
According to Keller, direct digital synthesis is expected to boost the generation and conversion of navigation signals by facilitating fast frequency switching, high frequency resolution and cross-frequency operations.
Further developments in this area have led to reduced operational costs and power consumption, the report said.
