Tutorials
Arrays for Space Applications
This tutorial is focused on recent developments on array antennas for Satellite applications and, in particular, on active phased array antennas. Active Antennas combine antennas with active electronic components and are becoming key elements for the development of high performance and flexible communication systems. Active Antennas are expected to play a disruptive role in the development of advanced antenna systems for Onboard Satellite and Ground applications including 5G and MIMO. They can be implemented with direct radiating arrays, possibly magnified by reflectors, with lens antennas, etc. Despite their advantages, Active Antennas are complex in terms of design, manufacturing and testing.
The tutorial is providing a detailed overview on Design and Technology aspects of Active Phased Array Antennas and is composed of five parts presented by speakers with a consolidated experience in Industry and in the Academia.
Piero Angeletti (IEEE M'07 - SM'13) received the Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Ancona (Italy) in 1996, and the PhD in Electromagnetism from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) in 2010.
Since 2004 he is with the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency (ESA), in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). He has been recently appointed Head of the Secure Connectivity Space Segment Office, with responsibility of the ESA design, development and deployment activities related to IRIS2 (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) multi-constellations space segment.
His 25+ years experience in RF systems engineering and technical management encompasses conceptual/architectural design, trade-offs, detailed design, production, integration and testing of satellite payloads and active antenna systems for commercial/military telecommunications and navigation (spanning all the operating bands and set of applications) as well as for multifunction RADARs and electronic counter measure systems. This has been acquired through direct industrial experience in several aerospace companies (i.e. Agusta-Westland, Thales Alenia Space, Boeing, Elettronica, Airbus Defence & Space) in different job roles (research and development, innovation, production, procurement, integration) and matured in the privileged position at the ESA, at the cross-road of all major European developments.
In particular he oversaw ESA Research and Development activities related to flexible satellite payloads, active antennas, RF front-ends and on-board digital processors. He authored/coauthored over 300 technical reports, book chapters, and articles published in peer reviewed professional journals and international conferences’ proceedings (google scholar: +2k citations, h-index 27, i10-index 65). He holds more than 20 international patents on mutlibeam antennas and analog/digital beamforming networks.
Together with Dr. G. Toso he is the co-organizer of the EurAP-ESoA course on Active Antennas (2021, 2023) and instructor of the short courses on Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks during international conferences (which has been attended by more than 1200 participants).
In 2022 he received the S. A. Schelkunoff award by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society for the best IEEE TAP paper published in 2021, “Traffic Balancing Multibeam Antennas for Communication Satellites”.
Piero is an IEEE active member of both the AP, MTT and AES Societies contributing to the various events/conferences with tutorials, invited/keynote speeches, papers, special sessions and workshops’ organization. He has been appointed 2023 IEEE MTT-S and AP-S Inter-Society Distinguished Lecturer by the Inter-Society Committee of the IEEE MTT and AP societies.
Giovanni Toso (Fellow IEEE) received the Laurea Degree (cum laude), the Ph.D. and the Post Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1992, 1995 and 1999, respectively. During his PhD and Post Doc he spent more than one year as a Visiting Scientist at the Laboratoire d’Optique Electromagnetique de Marseille, France. In 1999, he was a Visiting Scientist with the University of California (UCLA) in Los Angeles. In 2000 received a scholarship from Alenia Spazio, Rome, Italy. Since 2000, he has been with the Antenna and Submillimeter Waves Section, European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. He has been initiating several research and development activities on satellite antennas based on arrays, reflectarrays, discrete lenses, and reflectors. In particular, in the field of Onboard satellite antennas, he has been coordinating activities on multibeam antennas mainly for Telecom applications. In the field of Terminal antennas, he has been supporting the development of reconfigurable antennas with electronic, mechanical, and hybrid scanning; some of these antennas are now available as commercial products. He has promoted the development of the commercial software tool QUPES by TICRA, now used worldwide, for the analysis and design of periodic and quasi-periodic surfaces, such as reflectarrays, frequency selective surfaces, transmitarrays, and polarizers. Dr. Toso received, together with Prof. A. Skrivervik, the European School of Antennas (ESoA) Best Teacher Award in 2018. In 2014, he has been the Guest Editor, together with Dr. R. Mailloux, of the Special Issue on “Innovative Phased Array Antennas Based on Non-Regular Lattices and Overlapped Subarrays” published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and, for the same society, has been an Associate Editor from 2013 to 2016. In 2018, he has been the Chairperson of the 39th ESA Antenna Workshop on “Multibeam and Reconfigurable Antennas”. Since 2010, together with Dr. P. Angeletti, he has been instructing short courses on Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks during international conferences, such as IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (APS), IEEE MTT International Microwave Symposium (IMS), IEEE International Conference on Wireless Technology and Systems (ICWITS), European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), and European Microwave Week (EuMW), that have been attended by more than 1200 participants. Together with Dr. P. Angeletti, he is the organizer of the EurAAP-ESoA Course on Active Antennas. Together with Dr. E. Gandini, he is also the organizer of the EurAAP-ESoA Course on Satellite Antennas. From January 2023 Giovanni Toso has been elevated to IEEE Fellow grade for contributions to multibeam antenna developments for satellite applications. G. Toso is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.