WORKSHOPS AND SHORT COURSES. 13:50 - 14:00 Current and future requirements for ... The discussion will be mostly dedicated to telecommunication satellite systems
WORKSHOPS AND SHORT COURSES Duration: 13:50 to 17:50
Room 253
WM07 Recent advances in RF/microwave filters for space application Organisers
Programme 13:50 - 14:00 Welcome
Petronilo Martin-Iglesias, ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
14:00 - 14:30 Current RF/microwave filters
and
future
requirements
Abstract
Petronilo Martin-Iglesias, ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands Abstract
for
Filters and multiplexers are key building blocks in science, navigation, and earth observation and telecommunication applications. Satellite systems are in constant evolution to answer to new and changing needs in terms of throughput, coverage, flexibility, RF performances … The following bullet points offer an overview of some of the different approaches to respond to the new system requirement.
14:30 - 15:00 Reconfigurable Waveguide Filter with Variable Bandwidth and Center Frequency
Dielectric filters – already extensively used for low power narrow channels up to 20 GHz, are now being applied for medium/high power levels and higher frequencies too. Additionally, new topologies based on dielectric materials are helping to get more compactness for lower frequencies thanks to the very good quality of new dielectric materials.
15:30 - 16:10 Coffee Break
Christian Arnold, TESAT Abstract
15:00 - 15:30 Dual-Manifold Architecture for Reconfigurable Contiguous-Channel Diplexers – first results Antonio Morini, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy Abstract
16:10 - 16:40 New channels solutions in COMDEV : high power ku-band dielectric OMUX channel and superQ Ka-band OMUX channel Ming Yu, COMDEV, Canada Abstract
Reconfigurable filters – Reconfigurable filters are commonly found in satellite system studies targeting traffic flexibility between beams or reconfiguration of the channels due to the orbit reallocation of the satellite. Advances in reconfigurable filters able to cope with demanding specs and high power have been done in the last years.
16:40 - 17:10 Compact Filters and Diplers Applications Based On TM Dielectric Resonator
High power handling – new developments have been done to cover the demand of RF/microwave filters withstanding higher power. Solutions based on new materials, novel mode solutions and new synthesis approaches have been already presented in the last years.
17:40 - 17:50 Discussion
New manufacturing methods and materials – this topic is being intensively discussed nowadays. The application of new manufacturing approaches based on the additional of material supposes a breakthrough in the current RF/microwave filter design. Additional design margins can be explored together with co-simulation including electrical, mechanical and thermal issues. Additionally, new materials are being developed where, based on doping strategies, the material can be customized for electrical, mechanical and thermal perspective.
for
Luca Pelliccia, RF microtech, Italy Abstract
17:10 - 17:40 Low Q, high performances IMUX channel Joan O'Callaghan and Luis Javier Rogla, UPC / Thales Alenia Space, Spain Abstract
Space
WORKSHOPS AND SHORT COURSES
13:50 - 14:00 Current RF/microwave filters
and
future
requirements
for
Petronilo Martin-Iglesias, Telespazio Vega for ESA, UK Abstract This presentation will work as an introduction for the presentations integrated in this workshop. An overview of current and future system requirements for passive hardware will be performed in this presentation. The need of more compact, high power handling capabilities, bandwidth flexibility will be presented and discussed based on some system architectures. The discussion will be mostly dedicated to telecommunication satellite systems due to the high number of filters integrated on this type of payloads. Broadcast and broadband will be analysed and the derived requirements for the filters will be presented. Additionally, the review of other systems/subsystems such as TT&C and mobile satellite systems will be performed.
14:30 - 15:00 Reconfigurable Waveguide Filter with Variable Bandwidth and Center Frequency Christian Arnold, TESAT Abstract This talk presents a center frequency and bandwidth reconfiguration mechanism for waveguide microwave bandpass filters. The filters are designed to be used in the output section of a satellite communication system. While the center frequency of a bandpass filter can be tuned by changing the lengths of the filter resonators, the coupling irises as practical realizations of the impedance inverters cannot easily be adapted to a new value. The novel approach chosen in this paper is to replace the impedance inverters by a novel type of coupling structure. This coupling structure allows adjustment of the coupling by changing the length of a transmission line, which is equivalent to changing the resonant frequency of a coupling resonator. Design equations are presented to transform an impedance inverter into the proposed coupling structure. A synthesis procedure for bandwidth reconfigurable filters is proposed. The feasibility of coupling adaptation is proven based on a full-wave model of the coupling structure. The synthesis process is applied to a four-pole Chebyshev sidewall-coupled circular waveguide filter with 54- and 72-MHz bandwidth settings. The filter is built up and measured. The measured results prove that the filter can be tuned to both bandwidths over a center frequency range of 200 MHz with excellent return loss and insertion loss.
15:00 - 15:30 Dual-Manifold Architecture for Reconfigurable Contiguous-Channel Diplexers – first results Antonio Morini, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy Abstract The flexibility of future satellite systems in terms of resources usage and allocation and the development of the relative hardware are currently one of the most interesting research topics for space. This is demonstrated by the existence of several studies at both system and component level, on flexible payloads and reconfigurable HW, such as amplifiers, filters, antennas, etc. that are being carried out in Europe. In this context, the flexibility in multiplexer devices is of high interest, since it can represent the bottleneck for flexible payloads with adjustable bandwidth. The advantages of having the capability to tune in-orbit the input/output filters in terms of bandwidth and frequency, are multiple. Up today, when some degree of reconfigurability is desired, payload engineers are obliged to adopt switched multiplexer solutions that increase the overall IMUX/OMUX mass, complexity and costs. In such scenarios, the utilization of reconfigurable IMUX/OMUX would allow substantial reduction of both mass and
costs. In addition, one reconfigurable IMUX and OMUX design could fit to all payloads operating in a certain band. In this context, this contribution reconsiders a tunable diplexer based on the ‘dual-manifold’ concept and proposes a modification to improve the performance when dealing with close channels . The targeted applications are diplexers whose channel center frequencies can be arbitrarily positioned, resulting in contiguous and non-contiguous channel spacing. In classical architectures, the channel filters are mutually interacting so that any modification of the one affects the response of the other. In the dual manifold scheme, the junction contains multiple paths that minimize the influence of the variation of one channel on the other, thus producing a sort of self-correction. Some examples illustrate the achievable performances and limitations of the proposed architecture.
16:10 - 16:40 New channels solutions in COMDEV : high power ku-band dielectric OMUX channel and superQ Ka-band OMUX channel Ming Yu, COMDEV, Canada Abstract This presentation overviews some recent key passive component developments in the areas of passive filtering and multiplexing, addressing improvements in aspects such as size/mass and insertion loss reduction. In a first part, a novel dielectric-resonator filter configuration is presented. The new filter offers superior Q and wider spurious-mode free range at Ku-Band. Moreover, it offers 70% mass savings over the TE114 dual mode designs and over 50% footprint reduction compared with the TE113 dual-mode implementations. These characteristics make this technology well suited for the output multiplexer used in Ku-Band satellite applications. In a second part, a development for a Ka-band high power output multiplexer capable of handling 500W input power per channel will be presented. A novel Ka band filter with extremely high quality factor is realized using 22nd and 23rd modes of circular waveguide. A dual mode structure with good spurious performance is presented first time in literature. A cross coupled filter with side launched is demonstrated in this work. The results are supported by measured performance at ambient and over temperature. The designs demonstrate significant improvement over existing state-of the-art technologies in terms of insertion loss, temperature stable performance, power handling capability and mass/Watt.
WORKSHOPS AND SHORT COURSES
16:40 - 17:10 Compact Filters and Diplers Applications Based On TM Dielectric Resonator
for
Space
Luca Pelliccia, RF microtech, Italy Abstract The talk presents the design, manufacturing and validation of L- and S-band filters based on TM010 mode dielectric resonators. This work has been developed in the framework of the PETIT project (“compact high-Performance filters for space application based on dielectric resonator Technology”), funded by ESA. Goal of the project is to reduce mass and volume of L- and S-band input filters using dielectric resonator technology. Large and bulky coaxial resonators are currently used in the realization of filters for such applications. While dielectric resonators can reduce the filter footprint up to 50%, an optimum tradeoff in terms of spurious performance, temperature stability and unloaded Qfactor (Q) must be found. High dielectric permittivity (εr > 30) dielectric resonators operating with TM010 mode represent the best trade-off in terms of volume, spurious-free range and Q factor. A dielectric 4th order bandpass filter has been designed in S-band to achieve this objective. The fractional bandwidth is 1.5% and the IL is 0.25-0.3 dB, corresponding to an unloaded Q above 4000. The filter dimensions are approximately 50x50x40 mm (including connectors). A stable response over a temperature variation between -10°C and +65°C has been demonstrated and mechanical studies and optimization in ANSYS have been done in order to improve the upper temperature limit. High power Corona and Multipactor tests have been carried out, showing interesting and promising results mainly for TT&C applications. In addition, the full-wave design of an L-band diplexer employing the TM010 dielectric resonators has been proposed.
17:10 - 17:40
Low Q, high performances IMUX channel
Joan O'Callaghan and Luis Javier Rogla, UPC / Thales Alenia Space, Spain Abstract This workshop will describe the development of low-Q channel filters for satellite input multiplexers (IMUX). The use of low-Q resonators in microwave filters reports benefits in terms of footprint and mass. For the specific case of satellite IMUX channel filters made with dielectric-loaded cavity resonators, the low-Q synthesis techniques (predistortion and lossy synthesis) allow reducing the size of the resonator’s metallic housing and, possibly the use of dielectric pucks with higher permittivity (and higher loss tangent) than those used in conventional filters. Mass and footprint reduction of at least 25% is are in principle possible at Ku band. The workshop will describe the development of low-Q IMUX channel filters at Ku band starting from the various synthesis approaches (conventional, presdistortion and lossy) and topologies considered, and describing the whole development process up to the fabrication, tuning and testing of Engineering Models (EM). We will also compare the filters developed with the current IMUX filter technology in terms of complexity, tunability, engineering cost, and space qualification requirements.
