About Us

The founder, Marc Bjorkman, spent 35+ years with Lockheed Martin Space and heritage companies (General Electric Aerospace and Martin Marietta), where he retired as an LM Technical Fellow in satellite communications systems engineering. 

Marc's concentration was in developing innovative satellite communications payload architectures.

• Satellite communication payload architecture design
• Independent project and program reviews
• Request for proposal (RFP) creation, and RFP response and supplier evaluation
• Proposal writing
• Specification generation and verification
• Expert in payload architectures, including high-throughput satellite systems
• Engineering leadership, technology governance & telecommunications systems innovation
• Advanced RF and microwave communications architectures and systems solutions
• Analog and digital telecommunications theory, simulation, synthesis, analysis and practice
• Satellite communication payload systems engineering, architecture design, and integration & test
• Large-scale commercial, civil and government communications systems and programs
• Project and functional personnel management, including IR&D, resource and cost planning

OVERVIEW OF THE U.S. 17/24-GHz BROADCAST SATELLITE SERVICE:

Presented at: 27th IET and AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC 2009), Edinborough Scotland, 1-4 June 2009

ISBN: 978-1-84919-132-6 

This paper is an introduction to the U.S. 17/24-GHz broadcast satellite service (BSS) regulations and implications for satellite manufacturers. The 17/24-GHz BSS band is commonly called the Reverse BSS band. An overview of U.S. 17/24-GHz satellite regulations is provided. A summary of the satellite (space segment) technical requirements imposed by the FCC on the Reverse BSS band is offered. An overview of the satellite architectures proposed by the current FCC filings for DIRECTV, EchoStar, Intelsat, Pegasus and Spectrum-5 is presented and the implications of these architectures on satellite system design are discussed. An evaluation of available current technology to support Reverse BSS needs is provided and assessments of the areas of key technical challenges are summarized.

https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/cp.2009.1230

Microwave Technologies for Space: Needs & Challenges from Commercial and System Engineering Perspectives:

Presented at 2011 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, Baltimore, MD, USA, 5-10 June 2011

Microwave component manufacturers of space- qualified hardware require direction on where the most urgent needs and challenges exist in the commercial satellite marketplace. This paper examines the needs from commercial business and system engineering viewpoints and finds that the two are in harmony. The primary focus for space-based microwave technology innovation should be for geostationary fixed service, broadcast service and spot beam satellite payloads. Specific examples of desired innovations and improvements in active and passive microwave components are provided.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5973135

Commercially Hosted Ka-band AISR Relay Communications System:

Presented at 19th Ka and Broadband Communications, Navigation and Earth Observation Conference and 31st AIAA International Communications Satellite Conference, Florence Italy, October 2013

This paper defines an example concept for a hosted Ka-band payload to support UAV AISR type missions. Payload characteristics and assumptions are defined and data-handling capacity is evaluated. System level impacts to a typical commercial communications satellite are evaluated and a top-level concept for system operations is suggested. The results show that a system with significant capacity can be created using a hosted payload with very little impact to the host satellite’s overall size, mass, or power.

Optimum Linearized Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier Output Power Backoff

Presented at 34th AIAA International Communications Satellite Systems Conference, 18-20 October 2016, Cleveland, OH, USA

Due to the need for greater transmission capacity, Lockheed Martin has undertaken an experimental investigation to understand the challenges of transmitting modulation schemes such as 16APSK through a TWTA and an LTWTA, and to explore opportunities for improving performance as a function of output power backoff and linearity. Results related to the following objectives will be presented: 1. How is the transmission performance impacted as RF power is increased, and the maximum RF capacity of the TWTA is approached? 2. How does a linearizer improve this performance of the TWTA? 3. Is the transmission performance impacted by the IMUX and OMUX, and are there ways to mitigate these impacts? 4. Is there an optimum output backoff (OBO), and what is the best method to find it?

A Proposed Framework for High-Throughput Satellite Capacity Calculations Standardization:

Presented at  24th Ka and Broadband Communications Conference and the 36th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC), Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, October 2018

News articles within the space satellite community frequently tout high-throughput satellite (HTS) systems and the amazing expected throughputs (or capacity) that will be achieved with each new advanced satellite or satellite constellation. Because of a lack of uniformly-accepted standards as to how these satellite capacities should be calculated, comparisons between systems are not easily achieved. This paper explains the impact to capacity of key system parameters and advocates a proposal for a framework to standardize the calculations of the upper-bound of HTS capacity as a starting point for constructive satellite industry debate.

Fault-tolerant power combining system

Patent number:  7009466

Abstract: A power combining system includes multiple amplifiers, a reactive combiner for combining the output power of the amplifiers and a short plate. Switches are used to electrically connect an output of each of the amplifiers to an input of the reactive combiner. In the event of amplifier failure, the switches are used to electrically connect the short plate to an input of the reactive combiner in place of the failed amplifier. Type: Grant Filed: December 20, 2004 Date of Patent: March 7, 2006 Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation Inventors: Marc R. Bjorkman, Slawomir J. Fiedziuszko

Adaptive linearizer

Patent number:  10075310

Abstract: An adaptive linearizer system includes an adaptive linearizer circuit that is configured to pre-distort an input signal based on one or more control signals to generate a pre-distorted signal, and a non-linear high-power amplifier (HPA) having non-linear characteristics that is coupled to the adaptive linearizer circuit. The nonlinear HPA amplifies the pre-distorted signal. The pre-distortion characteristics of the adaptive linearizer circuit provide for countering the non-linear characteristics of the non-linear HPA and compensating a non-linearity of the non-linear HPA. Type: Grant Filed: August 26, 2015 Date of Patent: September 11, 2018 Assignee: LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION Inventors: Marc Ronald Bjorkman, Novellone Rozario, Jason Michael Teixeira, Douglas V. McKinnon, Kim Thomas Lancaster

Multi-stage linearizer

Patent number:  10305577

Abstract: A high-linearity linearizer system includes a multi-stage linearizer circuit formed by cascading multiple linearizer circuits. The multi-stage linearizer circuit is configured to pre-distort an input signal to generate a pre-distorted signal. A non-linear high-power amplifier (HPA) having non-linear characteristics is coupled to the multi-stage linearizer circuit and is configured to amplify the pre-distorted signal. Pre-distortion characteristics of the multi-stage linearizer circuit are configured to counter the non-linear characteristics of the non-linear HPA and to compensate a non-linearity of the non-linear HPA to achieve a desired level of linearity. Type: Grant Filed: August 21, 2015 Date of Patent: May 28, 2019 Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation Inventors: Marc Ronald Bjorkman, Kim Thomas Lancaster, Douglas V. McKinnon, Novellone Rozario, Jason Michael Teixeira