An X-Band SAR Satellite Payload Design with
Low Cost Approach for Disasters Management
James Yu-Chen Yaung1, Ming-Hwang Shie1,
I-Young Tarn1, Bor-Han Wu1, Chih-Li Chang1,
Chia-Ray Chen1, Szu-Hsien Yu1, Po-Yaun Tong1,
Shiann-Jeng Yu1
1
National Space Organization,
National Applied Research Laboratory
8th Floor, #9, Prosperity 1st Road, Hsinchu Science
Park, Hsinchu 30078, Taiwan
AbstractTaiwan Island was created by tectonic plate collision
where the continent building is still active with numerous
earthquake activities. Taiwan is also in one of the most prevalent
monsoon and typhoon areas of the world. Monsoons and
typhoons bring along heavy precipitation that produce significant
threat of mud slide and land slide in the mountains. SAR satellite
missions, with their advantages of all-weather capability, repeat
pass, high spatial resolution and sufficient swath, can provide not
only in-time coverage at disaster locations, but also environment
monitoring, disasters assessment and resource survey. The
images product will serve the needs of Taiwan government
agencies first not only before and after the crises but also during
the crises. However, the disasters management community users
have been in shortage of timely low cost imaging data ever since
the disasters management operations became effective. Thus, a
low cost SAR satellite payload design effort has been initiated in
NSPO (National Space Organization) with the satellites and key
SAR technologies in Taiwan.
Index TermsPayload Design Approach, SAR, Low Cost,
Synthetic Aperture Radar, Satellite Remote Sensing
I. INTRODUCTION
A sun-synchronous LEO (Low Earth Orbit) was selected
to construct the mission operations architecture [1]. The orbit
could be a good choice for space imaging Taiwan twice per
day (with orbit height near 561-582 km) for the land covers
targets of the Taiwan island provided the payload antenna and
the HPAs (High Power Amplifiers) technologies will provide
the required system performance. A small satellite SAR
mission was thus defined by assuming that the X-band
payload reflector antenna similar to the one used for the
TECSAR [2] mission can be acquired for our future program.
We then used the 3-m X-band reflector umbrella antenna for
the mission definition and the antenna beams analysis result
was released in the APSAR 2011 [1] conference. It was found
later the deployment mechanism and its machinery of a
sizable umbrella antenna like the one used for the TECSAR
mission can be too complicated for the Taiwanese engineers to
handle and it could be an impossible acquisition item for the
978-1-4673-7297-8/15/$31.00 2015
c IEEE
Chihyuan Chu2
2
G-AVE Technology Corp.
7F-1, No. 6, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd., Taipei City 106,
Taiwan
future low cost SAR program. Thus, the umbrella antenna
approach was no longer considered.
We have taken a low cost composite lightweight reflector
antenna approach similar to the reflector antenna onboard the
ASNARO-2 satellite [3], with a center piece attached to the
satellite body and the two other deployable pieces to form a
curved antenna main reflector after deployment. Our multiple
feeds system is envisioned to explore the spatial power
combining techniques in order to alleviate the burden of
power combining effort with transmission lines and
waveguides while using the GaN SSPA (Solid State Power
Amplifier) technology chips.
II. DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS
The X-band SAR mission was required to be able to
perform the 3-m resolution Stripmap mode operations for the
land covers targets along with the InSAR feature during the
NSPO SAR hardware/software development planning stage in
2014. The spotlight mode operations were also required to be
feasible over the land covers targets along with the needed
satellite operations. The scanSAR imaging mode with
degraded resolution for sea/ocean ships and other targets is
optional. Key requirements for the low cost space system
development were studied and documented in [4] and [5] and
they are under adjustment or modification along with the
payload design effort. More design requirements will be
needed (and added) for detailed design and fabrication of the
payload hardware and software. In [5], three payload
subsystems (i.e., SARE (SAR Electronics), Antenna, and HPA)
were divided for the easiness of development. The preliminary
subsystem requirements understood at that time were also
documented.
The payload development requirements have been
adjusted/modified via the iterations with the low cost design
efforts using the NSPO technologies for the Stripmap mode
with system performance required to be NESZ= -17 dB (for
two dual polarization imaging operations (i.e., either HH+HV
or VV+VH) for various land covers targets). The spotlight
174
mode imaging performance requirement can be relaxed with a
slightly higher NESZ value.
III. LOW COST DESIGN APPROACHS
The low cost design approaches for building up our X-
band satellite payload system are mainly in two areas: antenna
and HPA/PA(Power Amplifier).
A. Antenna Design Approach
Space SAR antenna normally will cost the most during
SAR satellite payload system development. MELCO
presented a low cost approach in terms of a reflector antenna
design upon a low cost NEC small satellite standard bus (see
Figure 1 in [3]) with reasonable mission operations
performance in the three modes as mentioned in Section II of
this paper. Their antenna, designed and fabricated with three
separate pieces before deployment, was configured with a
center piece attached to the satellite body and the two other
deployable pieces to form a curved antenna main reflector
after deployment. The second reflector and its four (4) feeds
are all positioned carefully and properly to form a cassegrain
antenna with high gain performance. The MELCO/NEC team
has used the TWTA technology for their antenna HPAs in the
ASNARO-2 payload system. And the peak output power level
can easily reach the range of KW for each TWTA.
The NSPO reflector HLA (High-gain Large Antenna)
will have many RF inputs and outputs, and the multiple feeds
required for the two dual-polarization imaging operations (i.e.,
either HH+HV or VV+VH). It is logical that more feeds will
be needed for our payload system than the ones used in [3]
(i.e., four feeds only) because of the expected lower output
peak power levels from our GaN SSPA HPAs/PAs system
compared with the TWTA HPAs used for their payload. The
antenna design requirements are specified as below:
The antenna configuration is briefly described at first:
z Main reflector size : <= 4.5mx2.3m (TBR)
z Multiple feeds system
z Second reflector (optional): depending on the type of the
antenna to be designed
z The antenna RF inputs and outputs ports (return loss less
than 15 dB) :
Multiple inputs : at least 4(TBR) inputs with each
port capable of carrying the radar signal with the
RF power up to KW
Multiple outputs: Two outputs, one for receiving the
H-polarized echo signals and the other for
receiving the V-polarized echo signals.
z 3-dB Beamwidth in the range direction : 0.8 ~ 1.2
degrees
z 3-dB Beamwidth in the azimuth direction : > 0.3
degrees
z Side-lobe level
< -25 dB for the solid angles which may suffer
imaging interference, they should also cover the
nadir return avoidance
< -15 dB for all other solid angle(s)
z Cross-polarization avoidance : < -25 dB
z Polarization : H and V should be able to be provided
(not required to transmit the antenna beam with H and V
simultaneously)
z Isolation between all the Tx and Rx beams (i.e.,
HH,HV,VV,VH) >= 30 dB (TBR)
The key design requirements for the spotlight mode
antenna beam have also been defined with a higher gain
antenna. However, no stringent beamwidth (in the range
direction) requirement for achieving the resolution and the
NESZ is imposed. The scanSAR mode operations will be
dependent upon the neighboring beam(s) (next to the Stripmap
mode beam) to be designed. So far, there is no firm antenna
design requirement in terms of the scanSAR mode swath.
B. HPA/PA Design Approach
During 2012-2014, the NSPO/NCTU team of Taiwan
fabricated and tested a PA module with a 8-to-1 GaN SSPA
(HEMT device technology) power combining architecture (see
Figures 1a, 1b, and 1c from [6]). Figure 1 below includes the
three figures for illustrating the possible NSPO/NCTU
HPA/PA module(s) [6].
Figure 1a. 8-to-1 Power Combining Design
(One PA module)

The key design requirements for the basic 3-m Stripmap

mode antenna beam using the antenna system configured are
then defined as follows:

z Antenna gain > 42 dBi (TBR), with the goal of >= 45

dBi

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR) 175

 both JAXA and NSPO is to make the PA module (300 W/600
W) with a suitable duty cycle ratio which is important for the
SAR performance (Note that HPA duty cycle upper limit will
be bounded by the available PRF selections within the mission
operations architecture). Currently, we have used the HPA
with 20% duty cycle for the NESZs system performance
evaluations, which may be of challenge to the HPA/PA design
and implementation for the conventional value used has been
10%.

Figure 1b. 8-to-1 Power Combining Implementation IV. IMPACT TO SYSTEM AND SARE DESIGN
(One PA module) The design work of the antenna and the HPAs/PAs for the
various beams will be of challenge to meet the mission system
performance from our current system design evaluation. To
keep the basic Stripmap mode operable remains to be the
highest priority work item, and to work out a spotlight mode
feature is also important to the mission under development.
Available PRFs can be figured out based on two criterions:
(1) Doppler bandwidth oversampled and (2) transmission
pulse eclipsing scene echo avoided. The antenna HPA for each

Pre-Amp 1x4 4x1 beam has been assumed to be operated at the duty cycle of 20
%. Note that nadir return blocking is not considered because
our special design about antenna side lobe level was specified
to eliminate nadir return. The computational results of the
available PRFs for the mission operations selection are shown
in Figures 2a and 2b. Figure 2, including the two figures,
shows the computation results of the available PRFs for our
selections. (HPA duty cycle of 20% is used for the
passive combiner computations)

Figure 1c. The 8-to-1 PA modules (shown in Figures 1a and

1b) can be further power combined for a antenna HPA (> KW)
(Four PA modules are shown to be combined with a passive
combining technology)

The output power (peak) of the PA module can be in the

level of 300W / 600W as shown in [6] by the team. Another
development team under Professor Hirobumi Saito of JAXA
also assumed that X-band 600 W PA modules (peak RF output
power) can be generated by power combining GaN HEMT
devices [7] for their microsatellite antenna. With various
power combining capabilities, we can form ~ 2KW HPAs
(equivalent) along with the antenna elements. By comparing
our design approach with the TECSAR payload using TWTA
HPA with a costly HVPS (High Voltage Power Supply) for Figure 2a. Results with no additional anechoic window
each TWTA [2], our approach is a much lower cost approach. for measuring system noise considered
In Figure 5 of [2], one can find the sizable HVPS components
configured for the TECSAR TWTAs power supply. Since
these basic GaN HEMT chips will only require their power
supplies in the voltage levels like 24/28/40 volts. The
significant reduction in the power supply voltage levels
(compared with the HVPS mentioned) will make the electric
power distribution effort much easier from the viewpoint of
satellite power management system. The challenge faced by

176 2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)


Figure 2b. Results with an additional anechoic window
for measuring system noise considered
Blank zones in Figures 2a and 2b show the available PRFs
for selection. Black (beyond the lower and upper bounds) and
blue (scene echo eclipsed by the transmitted pulses) zones are
unavailable for the PRF selection. Vertical axes on the
left/right hand sides are for PRF and its corresponding pulse
width, respectively. Based on the selected PRF(s), maximum
data rate and hence the specifications of the SAR EU
(Electronic Unit) and the SAR SSR (Solid State Recorder) can
be determined.
V. CONCLUSION
We have presented the main design approaches of a low
cost X-band satellite payload system using a simple curved
reflector antenna with multiple feeds. These feeds will be fed
in with various HPAs and/or PA modules to form the
equivalent ~ 2KW HPA (GaN SSPA based) system for the
various SAR imaging modes beams for mission operations.
Other design efforts in the low power RF transceiver and the
digital circuits for radar signal generation and on-board radar
2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)
echo data handling and transmission (i.e., mainly for SARE
subsystem) are also on-going. They are mostly conventional
and they wont cause too much cost reduction compared with
the antenna and the HPAs/PAs subsystems. It is thus
concluded our low cost small satellite SAR payload system
will be proved to be feasible for the future SAR program in
Taiwan when our low cost design items successfully reach
their fabrication and testing stage.
REFERENCES
[1] James Yu-Chen Yaung, Shyh-Jong Chung, Chih-Yuan Chu,
Hao-Lun Hong, I-Young Tarn, etc., Small Satellite SAR
Mission Planning for Taiwan, APSAR 2011 Conference, Seoul,
Korea, Available through IEEE Xplore purchase, 2011.
[2] Y. Sharay and U. Naftaly, TECSAR: design considerations and
programme status, IEE Proc.-Radar Sonar Navig., Vol. 153,
No.2, April 2006.
[3] Y. Yokota, Y. Okada, K. Iribe, M. Tsuji, A. Ando, and Y. Kunii,
Newly developed X-band SAR system onboard Japanese small
satellite ASNARO-2, APSAR 2013 Conference, Tsukuba,
Japan, Available through IEEE Xplore purchase, 2013.
[4] Chih-Li Chang, Bor-Han Wu, James Yu-Chen Yaung, Shiann-
Jeng Yu, I-Young Tarn, etc., A Preliminary Study of a New X-
band SAR Satellite Mission for Taiwan, ACRS 2014
Conference, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.
[5] Chih-Li Chang, Bor-Han Wu, James Yu-Chen Yaung, Shiann-
Jeng Yu, I-Young Tarn, Shiou-Li Chen, etc., A New Low Cost
X-band SAR Satellite Mission Planned for Taiwan, 2014
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[6] James Yu-Chen Yaung, Shyh-Jong Chung, Yun-Jui Lee, I-
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