EnSilica, a leading maker of mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), has joined the 5G-aNTeNna consortium, a European development project focused on creating compact, secure and scalable 5G-NTN user terminals for the EU’s IRIS² satellite communications commercial infrastructure.
Led by Silicon Austria Labs (SAL), the consortium brings together CISC Semiconductor, EnSilica, FRITZ!, TechniSat and Terma Technologies to develop a highly secure and resilient broadband communications platform operating in the Ka-band. The project is intended to help deliver the ground technology needed to support Europe’s next generation of sovereign satellite communications.
EnSilica’s participation builds on its established expertise in satellite communications application-specific standard products (ASSPs) and ASICs, including custom RF, mmWave, mixed-signal and digital ICs for high performance communications systems. As the project develops a compact Ka-band 5G-NTN user terminal with an electronically steerable phased-array antenna, EnSilica is contributing key enabling technologies including distributed digital beamformer and modem ICs. These devices support hybrid phased-array architectures that combine analogue sub-arrays with digital beamforming to balance performance, power and resilience to interference.
Together, the partners are covering the full development chain from semiconductor design and radio technology through to antenna systems, manufacturing and testing, positioning Europe to build both sovereign satellite infrastructure and the supporting user terminal ecosystem.
“EnSilica’s involvement in the 5G-aNTeNna consortium is a natural extension of our work in satellite communications silicon and of our collaboration with other European partners,” said Ian Lankshear, CEO of EnSilica. “As satellite networks move towards wider deployment of 5G-NTN services, compact, electronically steerable user terminals will be critical, and our focus is on enabling the semiconductor technologies that make these systems practical and manufacturable for high volume use.”