Microwave Laboratory

The Microwave Laboratory is a group of world-class test facilities designed to support space activities in the fields of Radio Frequency Testing, Precision Time & Frequency, Radio Frequency Life Tests, GNSS Payload Testing and General Purpose RF Microwave testing up to 320 GHz. The laboratory has a combined floor area of over 200 m² which includes four ISO 8 clean rooms. All facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art measurement systems and maintained to the very highest levels as demanded by the space industry. The laboratory is accredited to ISO9001 and staffed by a dedicated team of experienced engineers.

The lab supplies expertise to ESA and external partners by performing tests, analysis and characterisation of RF equipment and subsystems and performing research and prototyping at the beginning of a technology development, collectively applying expert knowledge and specialized RF equipment within the ESA-ESTEC premises. The Microwave laboratory performs tests using both customised and standard procedures.

Contact

For general enquires regarding this TEC location please refer to the assigned contacts:

Microwave Laboratory

Point of contact

For testing requests, access to lab facilities, training and consultancy services, please refer to:

THIRD PARTY ACTIVITIES

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Timing Subsystem Test Bench. Credit: ESA-Remedia

MMIC Bonding Station. Credit: ESA-Remedia

IOV Payload Test Bench. Credit: ESA-Cesar Miquel España

Clock Characterization Test Bench. Credit: ESA-Remedia

LAB OVERVIEW

General Microwave Laboratory

The General Microwave laboratory has a wide range of Test & Measurement equipment and capabilities as summarised in the table below.

Table

MAIN PARAMETERS

Clean Rooms

Four ISO 8 (90 m²)

TVACs

6 Chambers (-60°C to +120°C)

Thermal Chambers

2 Chambers (-70°C to +180°C)

RF Generation

Up to 170 GHz

Spectral Analysis

Up to 320 GHz

Arbitrary Waveform Generation

16 bit, 1.28 GSa/s, 550 MHz BW; 14/12 bit, 8/12 GSa/s, 5 GHz BW

Vector Analysis

Coaxial, waveguide and on-wafer; 2-port up to 170 GHz; 4-port up to 50 GHz; Real-time error correction; Time Domain Analysis; Electronic and mechanical calibration capabilities

RF Oscilloscopes

Dual channel up to 50 GHz (oversample); 4 channel up to 13 GHz, 40 GSa/s

Noise Figure Measurements

Noise Figure meter up to 26 GHz; Noise Sources up to 170 GHz; Phase Noise 50 kHz to 1.6 GHz; NPR Test-bed, Ka-Band

LAB FACILITIES

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UTC Facility

The UTC facility hosts and operates a set of high performance atomic clocks (hydrogen masers and , caesium clocks) and generates a timescale traceable to UTC. The performance of this timescale is reported every month by the BIPM in their Circular T. The operation and performance of these clocks are continuously monitored using phase comparison (10 MHz), time interval counters and calibrated GNSS receiver chains. The UTC(ESA) signal is distributed to the whole Laboratory through 10 MHz and 1 pps signals.

Main parameters of the UTC Facility

T4 Science iMaser Clock (3 Units)

2.0 x 10^-16/day, 130 dBC/Hz @ 1Hz

Agilent 5071A Cesium Clock (3 Units)

5.0 x 10^-13/day

High-resolution phase stepper

0.1 ps resolution (0.15 ps jitter)

Multi-GNSS Timing receivers

GPS, Galileo, Glonass, Beidou

Multi-channel Phase/Frequency measurement

Continuous

Clock Characterisation facility

The Clock Characterisation testbed consists of a Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC) able to accommodate single or multiple clocks for long-term frequency stability measurements and parameter evaluation (temperature sensitivity, warm-up time, frequency retrace, output frequency spectral purity and phase noise). The facility is equipped with an ultra-low noise frequency measurement system able to perform parallel measurements up to VHF band. A micro-vibration station allows the measurement of the clock output signal and telemetry trend against mechanical stimulus in ambient conditions.

Main Parameters of the Clock Characterization Facility

Vacuum Chamber Dimensions

1150 mm x 720 mm

Baseplate Dimensions

600 mm x 600 mm

Temperature Range

-45 °C to +165 °C

Vacuum Level Achievable

<10^-6 mbar

Micro-vibration Facility

(7 kg max loading) 1 mG to 800 mG; 1 Hz to 180 Hz; 240 Hz to 1 kHz

Radio Frequency Life Test

A dedicated TVAC is available to perform tests on both active and passive RF devices. Its unique cover design makes it ideal to perform tests on both coaxial and waveguide devices. The testbed also includes several dedicated pieces of test equipment for performing precision measurements and analysis.

Main Parameters of the Radio Frequency Life Tests Facility

Baseplate Dimensions

1000 mm x 600 mm

Temperature Range

-45 °C to +165 °C

Vacuum Level Achievable

<10^-6 mbar

VNA Capability

12-port Up to 26.5GHz (integrated VNA); 12-port up to 40 GHz (external VNA)

Unique Fast Local Temperature System

Based on thin (150 µm) optic fibers, EM immune and up to 1000 measurements/s

GNSS Payload Testing

The GNSS Payload facility hosts the Navigation Timing Test Bed, the IOV Payload Test Bed and the ISL Payload Test Bed. These testbeds provide support to In-orbit anomalies, navigation technology evolution and payload life testing. The Timing Test Bed consists of a thermal vacuum chamber equipped with vibration dampening as well as internal magnetic shielding to improve the isolation of the very sensitive atomic clocks inside. This facility hosts a rubidium atomic frequency standard (RAFS), a passive hydrogen maser (PHM) and a clock monitoring and control unit (CMCU) and it is capable of producing a frequency reference representative of GNSS space payloads. The GNSS Payload facility is capable of generating and evaluating end-to-end performance parameters.

Main Parameters of the GNSS Payload Tests Facility

Galileo Navigation Signals Generated

E1, E5 & E6 (configurable modulation)

Payload Testbed Thermal Control

+5°C to +50°C (independent unit control)

Payload Control & Monitoring

SCOS2000 Control & Monitoring Environment

Timing Testbed Chamber

Vacuum enclosure with thermal control

Timing Testbed Hosting Capability

PHM, RAFS & CMCU simultaneously

Load-Pull Facility

The Load-Pull Facility is available to perform source and load-pull analysis on bare die MMICs (soon to be expanded to 60 GHz), and packaged transistors up to 12 GHz using a dedicated low loss test fixture. It has the capability for Pulsed-IV and Pulsed Load-Pull for high-voltage power semiconductor applications. The facility is also equipped with a load-pull system & software for passive and active load-pull.

Main Parameters of the Load Pull Test facility

Load-Pull MMIC Frequency Range

0.4 to 18 GHz (60 GHz planned upgrade)

Load-Pull Packaged Range Frequency

12 GHz

Load-Pull System

18 GHz (60 GHz planned upgrade)

Semi-automated Probe Station

-55 °C to +125 °C

On-Wafer Probe Station

The On-Wafer Probing Station is available for characterising MMIC (active and passive) in a thermally-controlled environment and protected atmosphere, both in small-signal and large-signal conditions. Different manual probe x-y-z positioners are available for precise positioning. The probing station allows for semi-automatic operation.

Main Parameters of the On-Wafer Probe Station facility

On-Wafer Probe Station

Cascade Microtech Summit 12000L-M

Thermal Control Environment

Espec ETC-200L Thermal System for Summit

Probe Types

DC, RF, mmWave, Multi-Finger, High Power

Visual Control

eVue camera system

Services

Testing

Microvibration Test
Performance Evaluation
Qualification & Validation Tests
Test Beds Development
Life Testing
Environmental Testing (For Instance, Thermal Cycling Tests, Thermal Vacuum Test, etc)
Anomaly Investigations
Characterisation
Test methods development

Measurements

RF Characterisation

Simulation

RF Simulations
Modelling
Electric circuit simulation
Magnetic simulation

Analysis

RF, Electrical, Thermal Analysis Based on Acquired or Known Data

Technical Expertise

Consultancy
Training
Ad hoc auditing
Development of Space Standards

News from the Microwave Laboratory

UTC(ESTC), world best performing UTC realisation in October 2019

Thanks to the capabilities of and know-how acquired from the UTC facility, the local realization of UTC operated in the ESTEC Microwave Laboratory has been the best of all reported in the October 2019 Circular T.

Visit us in the EuMW Exhibition

We are again present at the EuMW Exhibition this year. We will be promoting our laboratory capabilities as well as the different ESA R&D programmes. If you happen to be around Paris from 1st October to 3rd October you are invited to pay us a visit at Stand number 475.

More information about the EuMW and the Exhibition can be found in this link.

TESTS FOR THE EVENT HORIZON IMAGER

The Microwave Laboratory is currently supporting technology demonstration tests for the Event Horizon Imager mission concept. The Event Horizon Imager aims at providing a high resolution picture for the black hole’s event horizon shadow leveraging millimetre and sub-millimetre frequency observations from space. The laboratory test objective is to demonstrate the generation of coherent local oscillators at two satellites from their independent master oscillators, this which enables a two satellite system to perform space-to-space very long baseline interferometry. This technique avoids Earth atmospheric disturbances which make impossible any imaging from ground radio telescopes at such high frequencies.

Image credit: Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

More information about Event Horizon Imager can be found here and a scientific paper can be found here .

SUPPORTING JUICE ESA MISSION

The Microwave Laboratory has recently been involved in a test campaign of an Ultra Stable Oscillator in support for our JUICE ESA Mission.

JUICE – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer – is the first large-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. Planned for launch in 2022 and arrival at Jupiter in 2029, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

More information about JUICE can be found here .

WE’RE SUPPORTING THE GALILEO PROGRAMME

Our laboratory, the Microwave Laboratory, has a long history of support to the Galileo programme. Currently we are running several test campaigns for them aiming at the improvement of both the next generation as well as the current generation performance at user level.

More information about Galileo can be found here

MetOp Second Generation

Apart from the experimental facilities we have also access to a wide range of specialized simulation tools. We have been using these tools extensively to support ESA missions, like the case with MetOp Second Generation where our experts have been modelling the high power RF performance of some elements of the satellite.

More information about MetOp Second Generation can be found here .