Xlim-Safran Electronics Lab for Antennas – X-SELANS

In the framework of X-SELANS, ZDS and XLIM will pursue their research and development on competitive RF components and systems whose architectures and performances are based on complementary skills in the microwave domain, particularly for the radiating elements, phase-shifting techniques, power amplifiers and low-noise amplifiers. Fine modeling, macro-modeling and behavioral modeling of these components and their interfaces will allow undertaking the challenges brought by the specifications of theses antennas, demanding state-of-the-art and beyond developments. The targeted applications, associated to ground stations or In-Flight Connectivity (IFC), require the development of high gain active antennas, containing thousands of radiating elements, able to steer their beam up to 70° with a high resolution in circular polarization, with respect of regulatory masks in Tx (ETSI class 2 or 3), low noise factors and high G over T. To produce solutions whose cost and consumption are controlled, it is essential to coordinate the different jobs associated to RF chains, their modeling and experimentation techniques.
In the first 54 months, X-SELANS will be dedicated to:
Research on active antennas architectures for aeronautical or ground terminal telecommunications / SATCOM:
Design of optimized performances radiating elements, improving experienced or exploratory solutions. Part of this task is about applying a synthesis method developed by XLIM, taking advantage of mutual couplings to simultaneously optimize radiating and active impedance performances of an array. This rigorous approach will be declined to SATCOM applications during the first 2 years of the project and will allow initiating a methodology to co-design and co-integrate the active chains and their radiating elements, which will show first demonstrations in the third year. It will be improved thereafter, by defining figures of merit necessary for system co-design and co-integration.
Definition of MMICs (LNAs, phase-shifters, mixers, attenuators) :
Evaluation and comparison of AsGa, GaN, BiCMOS, CMOS and SOI MMIC technological processes, in order to choose the ones offering the best RF performances at the operational frequencies in order to develop the selected active components. Test circuits will be considered in the first 36 months of the project, in order to define behavioral models to predict global performances of the active antenna.
Definition of power amplifiers :
Works on transmission chains will allow to :
- Perform a comparison of the different technological processes for power MMICs in Ka-band
- Define innovative power combining techniques, using waveguides or microstrip
- Define open or closed-loop linearization techniques
The objective is to federate the teams of XLIM and ZDS to define architectures allowing to go beyond the state-of-the-art. At the end of the 54 months, Ka-band operational tiles (representative group of elements, 16x16, for example) will be available in Rx and Tx, at TRL levels 6 to 7. Active circuits driving will be integrated to the tiles.
X-SELANS must be a real accelerator for the existing collaboration between XLIM and ZDS. It will allow sharing of human, software and hardware resources in order to achieve higher TRL levels than with dissociated PhD thesis, which will impact national and international notoriety of the partners. It will allow ZDS to achieve its strategy of growth on ground terminals and IFC; and XLIM to be a major actor in innovation and design of RF systems.