Low SWaP X-Band Transceiver for Deep Space Applications

The Frontier Radio deep space software defined radio (SDR) developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has been a staple of high-tier space exploration missions such as Parker Solar Probe, DART, Europa Clipper, and Dragonfly. Although Frontier Radio has been highly successful over the past decade, difficulties with longlead custom parts, manufacturing defects and delays, and parts obsolescence have driven APL to evolve the Frontier Radio family of SDRs in order to meet the increasingly resourceconstrained needs of future deep space missions. APL's next generation SDR, the Frontier Radio Lite Mark 2 (FRLM2), will bring significant improvements in size, weight, and power (SWaP), in large part due to improvements in front end design. These new developments leverage the progression in commercial monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology and the availability of new high-reliability components to produce a simpler and more SWaP-efficient design. This paper details the design and test of the FRLM2's X-band RF front end, a major advancement in APL's deep space radio capabilities.