Satellite Communications (SATCOM) is instrumental for both Commercial and Military communication around the world. CFD’s Microwave Photonic Products bring capabilities far beyond the traditional RF over Fiber. The SATCOM market has begun leveraging photonics in two primary areas, notably to achieve greater antenna-to-communications facility standoff distances (i.e., interfacility links, or IFL), and to reduce size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements for the space segment, including on-board processing and distribution. CFD’s products can offer this benefit while also allowing for increased data rates through the ability to process higher frequencies, higher order modulation formats and providing antijam capabilities.
CFD achieves this through significant enhancements in terms of wider bandwidth processing, higher spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) and reduced noise floor with significantly lower error vector magnitude (EVM) by replacing traditional bulky, low performing, RF sub-systems with photonics. This drastically improves performance, increases reliability while dramatically improving availability.