OverviewSeptember 2004

ECIT - SPACE TECHNOLOGY

QUB High Frequency Electronics Research Group

Professor Vincent FuscoFREng, IEEE FellowDirector of High FrequencyElectronics Laboratories

• The High Frequency Electronics Research Cluster

- Mission Statement: To develop state of the art microwave through sub-millimetre wave technology and

techniques for application in electronic systems

Largest HFE group in the UK

- Personnel Academics 6 ft, 1 pt world class researcher, 1 visiting professor10 Post Doc, including 3 Marie Curie Fellows, 1 RAEng/EPSRC Fellow2 Senior Engineers17 PhDs1 Technician5 visiting graduate researchers

Software•ADS•HFSS•CST•OEM FSS and nonlinear analysis•NEC

Main Facilities

Primary Hardware• 10m Far Field Antenna Anechoic Chamber• 2mx2m NSI near Field Chamber • Reverberation Chamber• On-Wafer CW Probing to 110 GHz• Free Space quasi-optical measurement to 850GHz• Wire Bonding and hybrid fabrication

MEMS Fabrication and Modelling

NovelMEMS

FSS and Artificial EM Media

Advanced linear /non-linearEM

simulation

Transceiver/ Antenna Technology

Microwave MM/SUB MM-Wave Systems

Tight integration with UK Space catapult centreand CEOI

Related HF/Industry Collaborations

Space Related Academic Collaborators

Recent World Space Firsts Include:

• 2012 Worlds first mobile Sat Comm terminal based on self steering technology

• 2010 World lowest insertion loss sub-mm wave FSS

• 2008 Theory and experimental mapping of distributed PIM

-110

-105

-100

-95

-90

-85

-80

-75

0 30 60 90

PIM3

(x) (

dBm

)

Distance from the line input x (cm)

Simulation

Near-field probing

Advanced PIMs and multipactor Characterisation and Analysis

Liquid Crystal Characterisation

Biasingconnection

Y

XZ

Material EM Characterisation

Cu trace

Fibre bundles

PTFE ~ 50µm

GRANT TITLE

EPSRC EP/J013897/1 ´THE FLISH´ Flat Satellite Dish

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ‘Innovative reconfigurable antenna systems based on Liquid Crystals - contract Number A0/1 – 6419/10/NL/JD

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ‘quasi-optical filter for Post EPS mission’ - contract Number A0/1 – 6419/10/NL/JD

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ‘Innovative low –loss FSS structures’- contract Number A0/1-4850/05/NL/JA

CEOI/NERC/ASTRIUM PhD Studentship ’Electronically scanned Rotman Lens with Liquid Crystal phase shifters- contract NE/H527740

CEOI ‘Frequency Selective Surface Filter Technology for Submillimetre Wave and THz Radiometers’ – seedcorn contract

InvestNI ‘Advanced Wavefront Control Electronic Phase Technology’ POC 135

ASTRIUM FEASIBILITY STUDY U40/4500132681-1

ESA - SELF FOCUSING RETRO-REFLECTIVE Tx/R/x ANTENNAS FOR MOBILE TERMINAL APPLICATIONS

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA) CONTRACT NO 22938/09/NL/JA

Global Invacom PhD Studentship Satellite Multiband Feed structures

GRANT TITLE

ROYAL SOCIETY INTER JOINT PROJECT - NOVEL NANOSTRUCTURE MATERIALS

EP/C00065X/01 “Mechanisms of Passive Intermodulation and means for mitigation on printed and layered transmission lines ”

RAEng/EPSRC “Distributed Passive Intermodulation Phenomena in Microwave Circuits”

DSTL UK/FR PHD “Nonreciprocal metamaterials for high impedance surfaces and conformal antenna applications

ECONAM-FP7-NMP-2007 “Electromagnetic Characterization of Nanostructured Materials”

DEPT OF THE NAVY (US) Office Of Naval Research Global “METAMATERIALS”

Example Space Relevant Grants

Advanced Steered and Self Steered Antenna Design

Millimetre Wave MMIC Technology SiGe/GaAS

MMIC DEVICES FORCommunications/Telemetry/Radar/Imaging

Broadband polarisers (C-band to submm-waves)

Ultra-thin Artificial Magnetic Surface Radar Absorber

Flat optics

Tunable NLC FSS/PolarisersInterwoven spiral arrays /p~40

Voltage controlled surface

Metamaterials and metasurfaces for conformal, tunable, and frequency and polarisation sensitive devices

Surface integrated waveguide technology

Filter technology

Multipaction-free VHF/UHF helical resonator filters

E-plane and ridge waveguide low/band-pass filters

Facility Tour

• Demonstrations

- Retrodirective Self Steering Antenna - Reconfigurable Liquid Crystal Based Antenna - Frequency Selective and Anisotropic Surfaces (FSS)