ANTWERP, BELGIUM — On Monday, July 6, 2026, European fabless semiconductor firm TUSK IC announced it has secured an industrial commercialization contract from the European Space Agency (ESA). Backed by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO), the contract funds the transition of TUSK IC’s high-frequency Ka-band electronic beamforming architectures from experimental prototypes into mass-volume, market-ready hardware components.
The Product Phase program will run under the Industrial Competitiveness element of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program framework. The funding explicitly targets the scale-up, validation, and commercial infrastructure deployment of the company’s proprietary ConnectKa integrated circuits and ConnecTile active antenna modules.
Scaling Standard CMOS Processes for Flat-Panel Terminals
The industrial objective of the contract centers on resolving the high manufacturing costs that complicate the deployment of ground segment user terminals for next-generation satellite networks. Historically, high-frequency millimeter-wave (mm-wave) components for electronically scanned antennas (ESAs) relied on expensive, specialized semiconductor substrates like Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) or Silicon Germanium (SiGe).
TUSK IC’s technical differentiation relies on standard, mass-volume Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) silicon fabrication lines. The engineering approach integrates radio frequency (RF) front-ends, phase shifters, and power amplifiers onto standard bulk silicon wafers, achieving a 30% reduction in thermal energy consumption compared to existing market alternatives.
By commercializing a low-power, standardized architecture, the company seeks to deliver modular, stackable active antenna tiles that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can tile together to build flat-panel tracking systems. These modular tiles enable continuous, non-mechanical tracking for Satcom-on-the-Move (SOTM) systems mounted to commercial aircraft, maritime fleets, and military vehicles.
Securing European Supply Chain Autonomy
The commercial acceleration of the ConnectKa platform occurs as operators scale up high-bandwidth Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellations—including Amazon Project Kuiper, Telesat Lightspeed, Eutelsat OneWeb, and SES O3b mPOWER. These high-throughput networks rely entirely on the Ka-band spectrum to distribute enterprise broadband, requiring a massive volume of agile, multi-orbit ground terminals.
Furthermore, the expansion of European-sourced silicon design supports the European Union’s broader legislative mandates for technological sovereignty. By establishing a localized supply chain for satellite user terminal components, the program reduces Europe’s systemic reliance on foreign semiconductor designers and state-backed manufacturing ecosystems, establishing a secure, domestic hardware baseline to support future institutional communication webs like the EU’s IRIS² constellation.
“This new phase marks an important step in TUSK IC’s journey from innovation to commercialisation,” stated Dr. Kathleen Philips, CEO of TUSK IC. “Building on the foundations laid in the Nebula project, we are now preparing our Ka-band chips and ConnecTiles for volume production and deployment in commercial SatCom user terminals. By delivering a first-of-a-kind solution with record low energy consumption and fabricated in mass-volume CMOS, we aim to strengthen Europe’s capabilities in advanced satellite communications and contribute to a competitive and resilient European supply chain.”
