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New Delhi: STMicroelectronics has become one of the least mentioned but significant technology providers behind the Starlink network by SpaceX. In the last ten years, the European chipmaker has exported over 5 billion radio-frequency antenna chips that were installed in Starlink user terminals and were designed to power one of the largest satellite internet systems in the world.
This amount may increase dramatically. STMicro estimates that the quantity of chip volumes that it will ship within the next two years alone would alone be sufficient to counter everything that it has shipped to date. The increase is the manifestation of the fast development of low-Earth orbit satellite networks and the rise of the commercial actors in space technology, reported by Reuters.
The partnership between SpaceX and STMicroelectronics can be traced to the time of the year 2015, when the emphasis was placed on initial Starlink launches. The scale has since increased tremendously. STMicro reported in its news that the demand for user terminals is growing at an accelerating rate as Starlink is becoming operational in new locations and acquiring more subscribers.
According to Remi El-Ouazzane, the president of the microcontrollers and digital ICs division of STMicro, the number of user terminals shipped in the past decade might well be doubled in the next two years. He also added that other operators of low-orbit satellites will adopt the same antenna chip technology.
The space industry no longer leans towards governmental and military domination. A rapid commercial market is being spurred by SpaceX, OneWeb and the projected Kuiper network of Amazon. This change is generating high demand for specialised chips that are able to sustain high data rates and extreme space environments.
The antenna chips developed by STMicro are based on BiCMOS and emphasise addressing these requirements. Outside Starlink, the company has collaborated with European aerospace stakeholders such as Thales and Eutelsat and is participating in initiatives associated with the planned satellite constellation, Iris², of the European Union.
In the future, STMicro will provide digital chips to future SpaceX satellites in inter-satellite laser communications. Such connections are supposed to enhance data speeds and minimise the use of ground stations.
With the growth of satellite internet networks the world over, the role of STMicro has become prominent as chipmakers start playing a key role in the commercialisation of space.
