The object of the contract is the development, manufacture, qualification and delivery of a high-frequency (RF) front-end for filtering, amplifying and frequency conversion of high-frequency radio waves, which UniBwM can integrate into the SeRANIS satellite as a hardware component.

On 11.08.2020, UniBw M founded a new "Center for Digitization and Technology Research of the Bundeswehr" (dtec.bw for short). dtec.bw is part of the Federal Government's economic stimulus package to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and is provided with research funds from the economic stimulus package via the Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg). With its inclusion in the German Recovery and Resilience Plan (DARP), dtec.bw is financed by the European Union - NextGenerationEU. The research project "Seamless Radio Access Networks for Internet of Space" (SeRANIS) has been approved by the BMVg and is now to be realized. As part of SeRANIS, an experimental satellite is to be built in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). The SeRANIS project is funded by dtec.bw.

For the SeRANIS project, UniBw M intends to acquire a radio frequency (RF) frontend.

The object of the contract is the development, manufacture, qualification and delivery of a high-frequency (RF) front-end for filtering, amplifying and frequency conversion of high-frequency radio waves, which UniBwM can integrate into the SeRANIS satellite as a hardware component.

The RF frontend must be designed for two different frequency ranges that can be operated in parallel:

- A block upconverter (BUC) that mixes, filters and amplifies useful signals of an intermediate frequency to the X-band (transmission path),

- a Low Noise Block (LNB), which mixes received useful signals in the Ku-band down to the intermediate frequency, filters and amplifies them (receive path).

The RF frontend must consist of the following hardware components per frequency range:

- Verstärkerstrukturen,

- Frequenzumsetzer,

- Filterstrukturen.

Four weeks after the contract has been awarded, the contractor must submit a first design draft of the RF frontend.

The contractor must also provide a qualification model.

The contractor must deliver the fully integrated RF frontend (flight model) no later than 12 months after the contract has been awarded, and the development model of the RF frontend (engineering model) must be delivered no later than 8 months after the contract has been awarded. Prior to delivery, the contractor must fully test the RF front end in accordance with the terms of reference. The contractor shall also provide the necessary documentation for the final acceptance.

The UniBw M has a total budget of EUR 170,000.00 (net) for the development, production, qualification and delivery of the RF frontend. UniBw M reserves the right to exclude bids that exceed this budget from the award procedure and to cancel the procedure if only bids above the budget are received.

UniBW M excludes tenders that do not meet all the minimum requirements of the service description from the award procedure.

Details of the performance and the technical requirements for the RF front end can be found in the terms of reference (Appendix 1 to the contract, Appendix 2).