Antwerp-based TUSK IC secures €15 million to move its Ka-band satellite chips into mass production

TUSK IC, an Antwerp-based fabless semiconductor company spun out of KU Leuven, has closed a €15 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Matterwave Ventures, FORWARD.one, and the Flanders Future Tech Fund, which is managed by PMV. The Schaubroeck family also participated, alongside continued backing from TUSK IC’s existing investors. “The future of connectivity will be determined not only by the constellations in orbit, but also by the technologies that make high-performance user terminals scalable and affordable on the ground. TUSK IC combines leading-edge mmWave innovation with the economics and scalability of standard CMOS, addressing a critical bottleneck in satellite communications. We believe this positions the company to underpin a more diverse and resilient space-based communications infrastructure,” said Silviu Apostu, Partner at Matterwave Ventures. Founded in 2018 as a spin-out of KU Leuven’s mmWave research group, TUSK IC is a fabless mmWave IC company delivering chips and modules for Ka-band satellite communications. The company develops highly integrated millimetre-wave integrated circuits (ICs) and antenna modules for the automotive, industrial and satellite communications sectors.  It started its journey by designing radio-frequency chips for automotive radar and industrial sensing before expanding into satellite communications hardware in 2022. Its flagship technology is a set of Standard CMOS-based beamformer chips for Ka-band satellite links, which the company calls the world’s first of their kind. These chips are a core component of the flat-panel antennas used in satellite user terminals, and TUSK IC says they offer a lower-cost, lower-power alternative to the specialty semiconductor materials, such as SiGe, that dominate the sector today. Its product line, marketed under the ConnectKa name, includes transmit and receive beamformer chips alongside a low-noise amplifier, all built for use in electronically steerable antennas aimed at low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellations. By building its chips on mainstream CMOS manufacturing processes rather than specialised materials, TUSK IC argues it can bring costs down without sacrificing performance, a proposition it describes as central to its mission of “democratising” satellite connectivity. “This milestone reflects the expertise and excellence of our entire team, who have turned an ambitious vision into a commercially relevant product platform. The investment will accelerate the transition from prototype chips to high-volume production. We are grateful for the trust our investors have placed in us and for the confidence our customers and partners continue to show,” said Kathleen Philips, CEO of TUSK IC. The Series A follows an earlier milestone this year, when TUSK IC secured a contract from the European Space Agency, backed by the Belgian science policy office BELSPO, under ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems programme. TUSK IC will use the capital to accelerate the commercialisation of its Ka-band beamformer chips, which the company says will make high-performance satellite communications more affordable and easier to scale. The funding also leaves the company in a position to scale its chips from prototype into high-volume production. The company is also working with an unnamed satellite equipment manufacturer to integrate its beamformer technology into a new electronically steered array antenna. The post Antwerp-based TUSK IC secures €15 million to move its Ka-band satellite chips into mass production appeared first on EU-Startups.