Project: Optimal Radio Communications Hardware with Envelope Signal TRacking Architecture

The ORCHESTRA project is targeting the Digital TV and Radio international broadcasting market, proposing a crucial technical innovation to create extensive competitive advantage for both parties of the consortium._x000D_The optimal criterion to offer the market innovative and commercially attractive solutions for TV broadcasters is to aim for a comprehensive strategic plan that maximizes all the CO competitive advantages, identified as crucial in a time window that includes at least the next ten years:_x000D_- Excellent signal quality;_x000D_- Maximum energy efficiency;_x000D_- Global technological support._x000D__x000D_The simultaneous achievement of these competitive advantages comes through the identification of some primary technological objectives that we list schematically below:_x000D_- Liquid cooling of power amplifiers;_x000D_- "Envelope Tracking" technique;_x000D_- Digital Dynamic Adaptive Predistortion technique;_x000D_- OFDM-based modulation standards._x000D__x000D_From a strictly technological point of view, the crucial objective of this research project is to combine, into a single platform, a signal transmission of highest quality with the maximum possible energy efficiency._x000D_A signal of excellent quality can be achieved by implementing a digital platform for Dynamic Adaptive Predistortion (DAP) which enables a transmitter to "control itself" autonomously and to automatically set its operating parameters without the help of technical staff support. The result of this self-adaptive mechanism is to obtain an almost perfect transmitted signal and to simultaneously minimize human intervention for COtenance._x000D_Another important consequence of the DAP technique is to maximize the transmitted power since the transmitter can operate in a way that takes full advantage of available hardware resources (i.e. operating in a less linear operating zone and thus minimizing the system operating back-off)._x000D_The important beneficial effect of the DAP technique can be joined with a decisive action to reduce further operating costs through the adoption of an innovative technique called Envelope Tracking (ET). The ET technique, which requires a significant research and experimentation effort, would be revolutionary for the energy efficiency of a Digital TV transmitter, which would go from the current value of 15-20% to around 40%. The decisive result of this increase in efficiency is to halve the operating costs of a transmission system realized with this technique, an indeed strategic competitive advantage in the international market._x000D_The CO target of the project is to design an innovative transmitter platform, based on both ET and DAP techniques, in order to reduce energy costs and to reduce the transmitter size and cost thanks to a smaller and lighter cooling system. In a few words, the final target is a prototype of an innovative “green transmitter” with reduced CAPEX and OPEX costs._x000D_The project will start targeting at a medium power transmitter (200W RMS) with a standard air-cooling system. During this first project section, Elettronika will develop the amplifier platform with integrated Envelope Tracking technology and Teamcast will develop the modulator system with DAP engine and ET signal generator._x000D_The two companies in the consortium will thus work in a perfectly complementary way, each targeting at its own development, but generating appropriate boundary connection conditions which will allow the subsequent integration into the final platform._x000D_The following project step consists, in fact, in the integration of the modulator and of the amplifier into a single innovative platform (see Fig. 4 in Annex A), through a coordinated cooperation work that will attempt to optimize the overall efficiency and performance of the final 200W transmitter prototype._x000D_After the integration into the 200W prototype, the project will continue with the feasibility analysis of a liquid-cooled hot-pluggable LDMOS amplifier with integrated ET technology of higher power and with the development of a prototype of this new liquid-cooled high-efficiency platform._x000D_Elettronika is a manufacturer of transmitters, while Teamcast is manufacturer of OEM digital modulators, each with complete technical skills over its own field of activity. The result of the consortium cooperation is total absence of overlap in skills and complete absence of gaps after joining the two contributes in the project. The technologies owned by the two parties, currently in line with the state of the art, are perfectly complementary: the innovative transmitter platform, final product of the cooperation, can be produced only after carefully joining the two relevant technical skills._x000D_

Acronym	ORCHESTRA (Reference Number: 7014)
Duration	04/06/2012 - 28/11/2014
Project Topic	The project target is the implementation of a high-efficiency digital broadcasting transmitter by the concurrent use of the innovative Envelope Tracking (ET) feature and a tailor-designed Digital Adaptive Predistortion (DAP) producing a dramatic decrease of CAPEX and OPEX costs for operators.
Project Results (after finalisation)	The ORCHESTRA project has developed and validated an innovative transmitter solution for Digital Terrestrial TV with a higher energy efficiency._x000D_TeamCast has adapted its digital modulation solution to a new type of amplifier technology and demonstrated that this new generation modulation solution meets the market needs in terms of performance and energy savings.
Network	Eurostars
Call	Eurostars Cut-Off 7

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
2	ELETTRONIKA	Coordinator	Italy
2	Teamcast Technology	Partner	France