Arralis Ka band Transceiver Communicates With Earth From Space

Arralis Ltd, leaders in the field of Space communications, today announced the successful launch and operation of their Ka Band high data rate transceiver. This payload was deployed in partnership with OHB Cosmos and Rocket Labs, one of their “Another One Leaves the Crust” Mission 18, Rockets.

The OHB Cosmos fast-track telecommunication satellite, a first space to ground service for OHB Digital, containing the Arralis Ka-band transceiver was successfully deployed and made its first communication back to Earth approximately two hours after launch. OHB reported the satellite was full functional and is receiving payload signals at its Bremen site since the 25th of January.

Arralis CEO Mike Gleaves said

“It has been a fantastic team effort by Arralis engineers in the UK and Ireland, working during the most difficult environment ever, my thanks to all those who made this happen and to OHB for having trust in us as a key supplier; this is the vision we had for Arralis just over seven years ago when first founded, a very proud moment”.

The LE-KaTR-102 transceiver is designed to fit within a 1U CubeSat profile and offers coverage between 27 and 30.5GHz in the uplink band and 17 to 21.2GHz in the downlink band.

The system utilises Arralis’ Ka band MMIC portfolio and employs a fully integrated chipset, manufactured on a GaAs space qualified process, enabling high speed data communication links between satellites and ground-based stations. It is also available for larger satellites with a high power solid state PA, also designed and manufactured by Arralis.

“As part of our innovative design team at Arralis, it has been a pleasure to work with OHB, in the development of leading-edge Ka-band space communications technology for their successful mission launch with Rocket Labs.” said Michael Major, senior RF design engineer at Arralis. “We see the LE-KaTR-102 transceiver as an important component in the future delivery of LEO mega constellations and the realisation of worldwide high-speed data communications.”