RADIO-FREQUENCY (RF) FEEDS WITH INTEGRATED RF, MECHANICAL AND THERMAL FUNCTIONS (ARTES AT 5B.182)
24, August 2018

ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9290
Open Date: 21/08/2018
Closing Date: 20/11/2018 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 18.1TF.07
Prog. Ref.: CC for Advanced Tech
Budget Ref.: E/0505-01C – CC for Advanced Tech
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / RF / Microwave Communication (Platform and Payloads) / Antennas – BB / Feeds
Techology Domains: Electromagnetic Technologies and Techniques / Antennas / Reflector and Lens Antennas
Establishment: ECSAT
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Telecommunications System Projects Offic
Contract Officer: Dean, Andrea
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 21/08/2018
Update Reason: Tender issue

The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test a complex, thermally stable, high power broadcast feedand its support structure with a reduced number of manufactured parts, and ideally as a single piece.Targeted Improvements:20% mass reduction compared to equivalent state of the art RF feeds, with fewer parts and reduced complexity in terms of design, assembly and integration.Description:Antenna feeds, in most cases, consist of several functional elements (filters, orthomode transducers, polarisers, etc.), which are designed and assembled from multiple mechanical parts due to their complexity. In addition to the RF constraints,there are also mechanical and thermal requirements that need to be incorporated into the design, for example, mounting brackets andradiators. These constraints add more complexity and further increase the number of parts in the design.This activity will investigate new approaches for the design of complex RF feeds for broadcasting missions. Such new design approaches shall benefitfrom the large degree of freedom provided by advanced manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing. The design shall allow the manufacturing of a complex feed including its support structure as a single part. An engineering model of the integrated antenna feed shall be manufactured and tested. The design and analyses shall address all RF, mechanical, stability and thermal aspects. The scalability of the solution for application in multiple beam systems shall be analysed.

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