NanoCom AX100 Transceiver

The NanoCom AX100 (AX100) is a half-duplex software configurable radio transceiver specifically designed for long-range transmissions. The combination of forward error correction, AFC and digital filters results in a high sensitivity system, without sacrificing flexibility. The radio module supports full on-orbit reconfiguration of the frequency, bitrate, filter-bandwidth, and modulation type. Smart CSMA/CA (listen before talk) medium access control combined with a small RX/TX switching duration gives a short satellite ping time, thus effectively removing the need for full-duplex radios, even for high volume data download. In turn this simplifies satellite design, because only a single antenna is required.

The integrated design of microcontroller, transmitter, receiver, LNA and power amplifier results in a small PCB module that fits up to four times onto a CubeSat PCB. Multiple hardware components are reused from the NanoCom U482C, including the PA, DC-DC converter, RX/TX switch, microcontroller, oscillators, and RAM memory