• communication protocol
• Multi-lane
• Space
• SpaceFibre

Data rate requirement in on board communication systems for space application has continuously grown in the last years, due to the presence of new high resolution instruments such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) or multi-spectral imaging systems. For this reason, the European Space Agency started to developed a new communication protocol named SpaceFibre, capable of achieving a data rate of 5 Gbits/s. This thesis focuses on the design and verification of the Multi-lane layer that allows up to 16 SpaceFibre lanes to operate in parallel, increasing data rate up to 20 Gbits/s and system reliability. The inclusion of the Multi-lane layer requires to readapt and redesign several parts of the SpaceFibre protocol stack and different design solutions has been explored. Moreover, a preliminary synthesis of the whole chip has been performed.