Synthetic Test Environment optimised for Satellite Payload Test

The SMART^E 5200 Satellite Test Environment is the newest member of the SMART^E 5000 Series, which is a complete, hybrid synthetic test environment from Aeroflex. The SMART^E 5200 provides standard and customisable test programs tailored to the specific problems of testing high performance payloads, which consist of multiple channels, each with up to hundreds of connections between the test system and payload under test.

“Continuing to deliver on the flexibility, modularity and open architecture that have characterised SMART^E 5000’s initial release at Autotestcon 2007, the SMART^E 5200 replaces the well-established STI1000C Satellite Payload Test System currently installed and in operation at customer sites worldwide,” said Dr. Francesco Lupinetti, vice president and general manager, Aeroflex High Speed Test Solutions. “The SMART^E 5200 is unique to the market because it provides the highest performance, most advanced and complete payload, panel, Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) and antenna-range testing for conventional bent-pipe and advanced communications satellites.”

SMART^E 5200 is a highly integrated and reliable COTS-based solution with an extremely intuitive user interface. Completely new, yet already customer-proven, SMART^E 5200’s entire measurement library and underlying measurement and calibration technology have been fully tested and validated with the STI1000C at major customer sites worldwide.

The core modules utilised in the SMART^E 5200 have been shipping in other SMART^E applications for approximately two years. Like the software and user interface, the core modules are production-grade and operationally proven in the field. When combined with proven accessories such as the Remote Calibration Unit (RCU), which allows TVAC testing of payloads with as many as 384 ports at an extended frequency of 40GHz, the SMART^E 5200 is the most cost effective, most advanced solution available to industry.

Aeroflex has more than ten years of experience in fielding synthetic test systems specifically configured for testing satellite payloads. Customers utilise the same systems for all stages of payload integration and test, including panel testing, reference performance testing of the full payload, testing in a thermal vacuum chamber and antenna-range testing in anechoic chambers.

While the different satellite payloads may have many similarities, no two payloads are exactly alike and no two manufacturers have exactly the same test strategies and methodologies. When designing the SMART^E 5200, Aeroflex’s objective was to create a test environment solution with core capabilities that addresses the common aspects of satellite payload test and still remain flexible enough so that it can be easily customised to match the unique requirements of any given payload and associated customer. Each of the Satellite Payload Test Systems from Aeroflex share common core elements, but are customised with unique test aspects for each customer implementation.

While evolving to its fifth generation SMART^E Test Environments, Aeroflex first changed the implementation of the core RF/microwave functions to be more modular in terms of the frequency ranges and power characteristics for the various applications. Satellite payloads operate at different frequencies and power levels depending upon the system application/mission to which they are applied. Frequency and power are two of the most basic cost drivers for microwave equipment, so the most cost-efficient solution is a test system that optimally and dynamically matches the range of frequency and power characteristics of the modules to be tested.