Astra Microwave Products Microwave Components and Sub-Systems

Astra Microwave Products Limited (AMPL), founded in 1991 with headquarters in Hyderabad, is one of the leading designers and manufacturers of high-quality radio frequency (RF) and microwave components and sub-systems in India.

ISO 9001:2008 and AS9100 Rev. C compliant, AMPL manufactures sub-systems for the defence, space, telecommunication and meteorology sectors and offers services from concept to completion.

AMPL’s product range includes radar sub-systems, electronic warfare sub-systems, space sub-systems, telemetry sub-systems, missile sub-systems, satcom terminals, monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) and micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), and telecommunication products.

Radar sub-systems

AMPL develops many radar sub-systems in various frequency bands like VHF/UHF, C, L, S, X & Ku. Some of the sub-systems developed include:

• Transmit / receive (T/R) modules
• Exciter / down converter modules
• Power amplifiers of different frequencies and output power levels
• Receiver front end modules

AMPL’s products have been used in both Indian and international radar programmes and have been developed in accordance with the necessary military standards and aerospace standards. AMPL has the capability to design, develop and produce complete radio frequency (RF) portion for a Radar system.

Electronic Warfare sub-systems

AMPL offers a wide range of electronic warfare sub-systems to its clients. AMPL’s electronic warfare sub-systems include DLVA / EDLVA super components, base line interferometer (BLI) super components, switch filter assembly units, spiral antennas, blade antennas, down converters in various frequency bands, digital instantaneous frequency measurement (DIFM) units, dual switch amplifier modules, voltage controlled oscillators and threshold detectors.

AMPL has successfully indigenised the design and development of the extended digital log video amplifier (EDLVA) in association with Defense Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) for which AMPL was awarded with ‘best import substitution’ award from the Indian government.

Space sub-systems

AMPL is a major force in the Indian space sector. The product line for space sector includes:

• T/R modules in different bands
• 8×8 switch matrix
• SPST switches
• Solid-state power amplifiers (SSPAs)
• Power dividers
• Amplifiers
• Phase shifters
• Transponders in different bands
• C-band and Ku band receivers for communication payloads

Some of these sub-systems are on board various ISRO satellites like GSAT, INSAT, RISAT, IRS etc All the products and the manufacturing facilities are qualified for space standards.

Missile electronics sub-systems

AMPL offers a wide range of missile electronics sub-systems to its clients. AMPL’s diverse product range includes command and guidance units (CGU), radio proximity fuses (RPF), RF exciters, down converters and sub-systems for missile seekers. Typically these products find applications in various types of missiles viz. Surface to Air, Air to Air, launched from various platforms.

Telemetry

AMPL has developed telemetry sub-systems such as dual-channel S-band FM telemetry receivers, 10W S-band transmitter with RF bite, 10W amplifiers, S-band transponders, airborne data telemetry transmitters and video telemetry transmitters(DTT & VTT) and L-band telemetry receivers. The DTT and VTT are deployed onboard indigenously developed fighter aircraft.

MMIC chips

AMPL is a pioneer in the field of MMICs in India and is one of the leading MMIC design houses internationally.

AMPL has designed MMICs using 0.15 and 0.5 microns technologies. The product line includes:

• Low-noise amplifiers (LNAs)
• Wideband amplifiers
• Power amplifiers
• Digital phase shifters
• Voltage variable attenuators
• Digital attenuators
• Switches
• Mixers

State-of-the-art tools like microwave office and advanced design systems (ADS) are used to design these MMICs and MEMS.

A 12,000ft² ‘Class 10000’ clean room has been set up exclusively for on-wafer RF probing, dicing of wafers and assembly/packaging of the MMICs.

Meteorology

AMPL in collaboration with ISRO has developed and installed automatic weather stations (AWS) in more than 1,200 remote locations across India. Data of various parameters like temperature, rainfall, wind speed, solar radiation levels, atmospheric pressure can be recorded using these stations.

These stations send locally collected data to a central location via satellite using our indigenously developed uplink antenna, data logger and transmitter. This data is used for further analysis by the Indian Meteorology Department and various other research institutes.

Satcom

AMPL has successfully developed mobile satellite service (MSS) type-D terminals for use during disaster situations when all other means of communication have failed.

These DAMA-based terminals provide point-to-point connectivity for voice and data-based communications. Working in S-band, these terminals have very quick deploy times and are also highly portable.