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 aims to contribute to providing the necessary terrestrial technology to support the next generation of sovereign satellite communications in Europe.

EnSilica's involvement builds on its recognized expertise in application-specific standard products (ASSPs) and custom-designed integrated circuits (ASICs) for satellite communications, including custom RF, millimeter-wave, mixed-signal, and digital ICs for high-performance communication systems. As the project develops a compact Ka-band 5G-NTN user terminal with an electronically steerable phased-array antenna, EnSilica contributes key technologies such as a distributed digital beamformer and modem ICs. These devices support hybrid phased-array architectures that combine analog sub-arrays with digital beamforming to balance performance, power consumption, and interference resistance.

Together, the partners cover the entire development chain, from semiconductor design and radio technology to antenna systems, manufacturing and testing, positioning Europe to build both a sovereign satellite infrastructure and the user terminal ecosystem that supports it.

“ EnSilica ’s participation in the 5G-aNTeNna consortium is a natural extension of our work on semiconductors for satellite communications and our collaboration with other European partners,” said Ian Lankshear, CEO of EnSilica. “As satellite networks move toward wider deployment of 5G-NTN services, compact, electronically steerable user terminals will be critical, and we aim to develop the semiconductor technologies that make these systems viable and manufacturable for large-scale use.”