The project will ‘accelerate the OFGU’s readiness for space … after which early demonstrations in orbit can commence,’ said the company product lead.

Irish space-tech start-up Pilot Photonics has agreed a €1m European Space Agency (ESA) contract to ‘space-proof’ its own technology.

With the funds, the Dublin City University (DCU) spin-out hopes to meet the growing demand for new satellite constellations at a lower cost and size with higher frequency bands.

Current satellite systems use electronic frequency generation units, which can be overwhelmed by data-intensive applications such as live streaming, remote working and XR use cases.

In addition, the growing number of satellites in orbit (there are around 12,500 active satellites in Low Earth Orbit) means crowded frequency bands. Solutions traditionally seek higher frequency bands, lower cost and weight, and flexible payloads, the company said.

Pilot will be sprucing up its optical frequency generator unit (OFGU), which uses optical comb lasers instead of radio frequency (RF) electronics. According to Pilot, this system delivers frequencies between 8GHz and 220GHz from a single source and in a compact module.

The fresh funds from the ESA will build on earlier work completed under other EU projects, including PhotonHub Europe.

“This project will accelerate the OFGU’s readiness for space, culminating in space-environment validation after which early demonstrations in orbit can commence,” said Dr Amol Delmade, the OFGU product lead at Pilot Photonics.

The start-up’s technology is based on many years of research and development undertaken at DCU, Trinity College Dublin and Tyndall National Institute.

Dr Nikos Karafolas, ESA technical officer, said: “Photonic technologies are becoming increasingly important for space. There is a need for technologies like the OFGU … for existing RF and for future photonic RF architectures.”

Pilot Photonics received €600,000 in a 2022 ESA contract to develop miniature comb lasers based on photonic integration.

In 2024, it received €2.5m from the European Innovation Council to address pressures arising from the fast adoption of AI on data centres, which it used to further develop comb lasers and other satellite communication technology.

Earlier this year, Pilot Photonics announced a partnership with UK company Finchetto to deploy its line of nanosecond tunable lasers within the development of Finchetto’s switch devices for data centres.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.