ESA
TECDirectorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality

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The Control laboratory supports engineering research , evaluation and investigations for ESA Projects and R&D Programs through prototyping, characterisation and testing of the products related to AOCS and pointing systems.

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UTC Facility 

The UTC facility hosts and operates a set of high-performance atomic clocks (H-Masers, Cs) and generates a timescale traceable to UTC. The performance of this timescale is reported every month by the BIPM in the 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 (ESTC) 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

General Microwave Laboratory 

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

Main Parameters of the General Microwave Laboratory Facility

  • 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
TestS & SERVICES

Vibration Test

Acoustic Test

Environtal testing TEC-MXP Brochure

Our facilities share the same goal: To enable and support future missions and keep Europe’s tech industry competitive

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