The project will ‘accelerate the OFGU’s readiness for space…after which early demonstrations in orbit can commence,’ said company product lead.
Irish space-tech Pilot Photonics has received a €1m European Space Agency (ESA) contract to ‘space-proof’ the start-up’s technology.
With the funds, the Dublin City University (DCU) spin-out hopes to meet the growing demand for new satellite constellations at a lower cost and size with higher frequency bands.
Current satellite systems use electronic frequency generation units, which are often overwhelmed with data-intensive applications such as live streaming, remote working and XR use cases.
In addition, a growing number of satellites in orbit (there are around 12,500 active satellites in Low Earth Orbit) means crowded frequency bands. The solution demands for higher frequency bands, lower cost and weight and flexible payloads.
Pilot will be sprucing up its Optical Frequency Generator Unit (OFGC), which uses optical comb lasers instead of radio frequency (RF) electronics. According to the space-tech, this system delivers frequencies from 8 GHz to 220 GHz from a single source and in a compact module.
The fresh funds from the ESA builds on earlier work completed under other EU projects, including PhotonHub Europe.
“This project will accelerate the OFGU’s readiness for space, culminating in space-environment validation after which early demonstrations in orbit can commence,” said Dr Amol Delmade, the OFGU product lead at Pilot Photonics.
Pilot Photonics’ technology is based on more than 10 years of research and development undertaken at DCU, Trinity College Dublin and Tyndall National Institute.
The company received €600,000 in a 2022 ESA contract to develop miniature comb lasers based on photonic integration.
In 2024, it received €2.5m from the European Innovation Council to address pressures arising from the fast adoption of AI on data centres, which it used to further develop comb lasers and other satellite communication technology.
Dr Nikos Karafolas, ESA’s technical officer said: “Photonic technologies are becoming increasingly important for space.
“There is a need for technologies like the OFGU to offer higher Q, stable, local oscillator for existing RF and for future Photonic RF architectures.”
Earlier this year, Pilot Photonics announced a partnership with UK company Finchetto to deploy its line of nanosecond tunable lasers within the development of Finchetto’s switch devices for data centres.
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