Sentinel-1 Instrument Control Electronics Hardware Design

The Sentinel-1 C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument is currently under development by EADS Astrium. For this instrument the SAR Instrument Control Electronics unit ( ICE) which forms the core of the SAR Electronics Subsystem (SES) is being produced at the Portsmouth by Astrium UK. This equipment provides the radar with its core functionality, control and monitoring. The sub-system uses a fully digital design approach for both the derivation of the ( up to 100MHz ) C-band Chirped Radar signal and the digital receiver which samples the echo signal at an IF close to baseband. With single up-conversion and down-conversion stages and data processing using efficient digital filtering and data compression algorithms it is anticipated that this equipment will provide a highly stable core electronics base for this new exciting GMES utility. The Sentinel-1 ICE represents the next generation of central electronics building on the heritage of previous SAR missions ERS-1/2, ASAR and RADARSAT-2. New technologies have been embraced and developed to produce a smaller lighter single-box solution. The design takes benefit of progress in FPGA and ASIC technology to provide the complex digital data processing performance required. This paper discusses the key development areas introduced in the ICE design, the hardware procurement and production issues and the results achieved from the first prototype of this unit and its benefits for advanced contemporary and future SAR systems.