NEC Completes Design of Japan’s Optical Communication Demonstrator Satellite

June 1, 2026

NEC Corporation
Tokyo, Japan
www.nec.com

NEC Corporation will develop a small technology demonstration satellite to conduct in-orbit verification of key technologies essential for realizing future optical communication satellite constellations, including optical communications, high-speed network routing design, and high-capacity millimeter-wave band communications.

The design of the satellite-mounted equipment (payload) for this demonstration has now been completed. Moving forward, the payload will be manufactured and integrated into the satellite bus ahead of the satellite’s launch into orbit, scheduled to occur in 2027.

In satellite constellations where numerous satellites collaborate and function together, optical communication is increasingly favored over conventional radio for satellite-to-satellite communications. This shift aims to avoid communication interference and enable high-capacity data transmission. However, in order to equip a large number of small satellites with optical communication devices, it is necessary to shorten the development and manufacturing times and reduce costs.

Against this backdrop, NEC will conduct demonstrations needed to solve these challenges.

The technology demonstration satellite will conduct the following demonstrations in orbit: 1. Demonstration of Radiation-Hardened Design for Commercial Optical Transceivers. NEC will evaluate the radiation-hardened design for space environments of low-cost, high-performance commercial optical transceivers capable of enabling high-capacity transmission even on small satellites. 2. Demonstration of High-Speed Network Routing Processing Technology in Space. NEC will conduct operational verification using a Versal Adaptive SoC device manufactured by AMD for high-performance signal processing. 3. Demonstration of Next-Generation Millimeter-Wave Band Communication Technology. In anticipation of a future shift to higher frequency bands that will enable high-speed, large-capacity data transmission, NEC will demonstrate the operation of millimeter-wave Q/V-band transceiver equipment

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