CesiumAstro Selects Keysight Technologies for State-of-the-Art Phased Array Calibration
Press ReleaseSeptember 01, 2021
CesiumAstro Inc., a leading manufacturer of active phased array communications payloads for space and airborne platforms, has selected Keysight Technologies’ (NYSE: KEYS) design and validation solutions to help accelerate the design, manufacturing, and test of CesiumAstro’s high-performance phased array communications payloads.
CesiumAstro’s approach to phased array design dramatically reduces the cost to build, time to manufacture, and power to operate active phased array technologies making them ideal for a wide range of space and airborne platforms. However, test and calibration of large multi-element arrays can present both technical and resource challenges. Cesium’s Nightingale 1 active phased array, launching on Cesium Mission 1 satellites in September, features 186 elements each with 64 phase states and 32 gain states behind each element requiring nearly 400,000 discrete measurements for a single run. Characterizing performance for transmit and receive across just a few different temperatures and operational scenarios increases the number of measurements exponentially. Utilizing the advanced triggering and memory features on the latest Keysight Technologies PNA-X network analyzer, CesiumAstro was able to reduce array characterization time from hours to minutes representing nearly 100x improvement in test times.
“We would typically start a test around lunch time and collect our results late the next day,” said Erik Luther, Director of Product at CesiumAstro. “Now we can collect a full set of measurements in just a few minutes.”
Rapid testing is a critical aspect of phased array design that extends beyond convenience. Environmental variables such as temperature changes over the time the array is operated introduces temperature gradients that adds to RF measurement uncertainty and makes the results difficult to correlate. Taking fast measurements minimizes temperature variation and other environmental phenomena ensuring that the phase and gain states are the only variables impacting performance. Faster measurements also allow the engineering team to calibrate and test the array under a wider range of scenarios, which ultimately gives the customer a more refined product.
“The support of Keysight has been critical aspect of our success,” said Shey Sabripour, CEO and Founder of CesiumAstro. “We utilize Keysight test equipment across sites to enable all of our teams to collaborate with a common set of state-of-the-art tools.”
“Keysight establishes close working relationships with our customers to accelerate their innovations,” said Dan Dunn, Vice President of Keysight’s Aerospace Defense Government Solutions. “Our collaboration with CesiumAstro has enabled the company to develop new high speed antenna test approaches which will benefit the entire space industry.”
CesiumAstro’s cutting edge RF labs include high performance test equipment, multiple RF chambers, antenna ranges, and environmental test stands for parametric characterization, calibration, and over-the-air testing of its space and airborne communication products.
To learn more about CesiumAstro’s active phased array technology and see the hardware in-person visit the CesiumAstro booth at SATELLITE 2021 in National Harbor, MD the week of September 5, 2021. To learn more about the CesiumAstro Phased Array Solutions, click here: https://www.cesiumastro.com/products
For pricing and purchasing information, please email sales@cesiumastro.com
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About CesiumAstro
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with an office in Broomfield, Colorado, CesiumAstro builds high-throughput, software-defined phased array communication payloads for airborne and space platforms including satellites, missiles, UAV, and more. Cesium’s full-stack, multi-mission hardware and software products enable a range of commercial, government and defense objectives. CesiumAstro provides full in-house design, manufacturing and testing capabilities based on the AS9100 standard. For more information, visit: https://www.cesiumastro.com.
About Keysight Technologies
Keysight delivers advanced design and validation solutions that help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysight's dedication to speed and precision extends to software-driven insights and analytics that bring tomorrow's technology products to market faster across the development lifecycle, in design simulation, prototype validation, automated software testing, manufacturing analysis, and network performance optimization and visibility in enterprise, service provider and cloud environments. Our customers span the worldwide communications and industrial ecosystems, aerospace, and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor, and general electronics markets. Keysight generated revenues of $4.2B in fiscal year 2020. For more information about Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS), visit us at www.keysight.com.
