New millennium deep space Tiny Transmitter: first phase of a digital transponder

An advanced technology X- and Ka-band (8 and 32 GHz) Tiny Transmitter is being developed for the New Millennium program and is described in this paper. The Tiny Transmitter is the first development phase of the Tiny Transponder which will incorporate recent advances in miniaturization and flexibility of radio systems by utilizing digital radio techniques. These techniques incorporate digital technology and algorithms to perform many functions which have traditionally been performed by analog circuits and allow the complexity of the RF portion of the radio to be minimized. The Tiny Transponder will be able to meet the needs of many deep space missions presently being planned for launch after the year 2000.