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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Phys.
Sec. Optics and Photonics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1542043
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances and Applications of Optical Wireless Communication in Next-Generation Networks. View all 3 articles
Development and Environmental Validation of a Compact EDFA with Integrated LNA+HPA for Satellite Optical Communications
Provisionally accepted- National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Japan), Koganei, Tôkyô, Japan
The Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) plans to launch a 6U CubeSat into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) during the Japanese fiscal year 2025. The primary payload for this mission is CubeSOTA (CubeSat’s Small Optical TrAnsponder), a miniaturized free-space optical communication terminal currently under development. A key component of this terminal is the optical amplifier, which must provide high transmission gain to overcome the significant free-space losses caused by the long distances involved in space communications. Additionally, to enable seamless integration into communication networks, the optical amplifier must support bidirectional communications. To achieve this, the amplifier incorporates a 2-in-1 design, integrating a high-power amplifier (HPA) for the transmission path and a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for the reception path. This paper presents the key features of this recently developed optical amplifier and its space qualification process, which is essential before its integration into the CubeSOTA terminal for launch. The developed amplifier features a 9×9.5 cm footprint for compatibility with the CubeSat standard, a reduced height of 3.6 cm and mass of 0.56 kg, while the HPA can deliver an output exceeding 2 W and the LNA is optimized for Doppler compensation and low noise with a noise figure below 4.5 dB. The environmental testing focuses on the amplifier's most critical features, namely its performance across varying temperature conditions in a vacuum and its power consumption under different operation modes.
Keywords: EDFA, optical amplifier, HPA, LNA, Space qualification, Cubesat, CubeSOTA, Satellite Communications
Received: 09 Dec 2024; Accepted: 27 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Carrasco-Casado, Shiratama, Kolev, Tsuji and Toyoshima. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alberto Carrasco-Casado, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Japan), Koganei, 184-0015, Tôkyô, Japan
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