A robust low power communications architecture for nano-satellites

This paper describes a low power communication architecture for 2U class nano-satellites. The system is designed to operate two links in the UHF and VHF bands, each of which is managed by independent microcontrollers. Impedance matching networks and harmonic filters are designed to ensure that the maximum power is transferred and spurious emissions are within the acceptable limits. It contains a transceiver module on both the links to ensure that in case one link fails, the other can take over. This system is implemented on two separate PCBs. The link budget calculations are shown here for all the communication links.