Design and performance of the integrated receiver for NASA´s second TDRSS ground terminal

An integrated receiver (IR) designed to support multiple access, S-band single access (SSA), K-band single access (KSA), S -band Shuttle return (SSHR), and K-band Shuttle return (KSHR) services for the second Tracking Data and Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) ground terminal (STGT) is being developed. With a VLSI/ASIC-intensive design, the IR integrates the demodulator, symbol synchronizer, pseudonoise (PN) tracking, carrier recovery, and data recovery functions into a single integrated unit. The authors describe the overall receiver design and implementation, with particular emphasis on the demodulation and tracking loop operation. Laboratory measurements are presented that demonstrate the bit error rate performance capability of the receiver