NIDs d'Abeille fonctionnalisés pour les Sciences et Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication – NIDASTIC

The NIDASTIC project (Functionalized honeycombs for Sciences, Information and Communication Technologies) is set up by a consortium of three partners: DCNS, University of Rennes 1 (IETR), and SERIBASE. Its main purpose concerns the development of multifunctional composite panels based on smart honeycombs.

This proposal is directly derived from a CIFRE Défense PhD thesis (N ° 007/2013 - K. Rubrice) which has demonstrated the full potential of this innovative concept (Technology Readiness Level TRL 3-4), especially for applications in the microwave field: tunable radome panels, honeycomb sandwich, control vector, or antennas and antenna arrays made from the core of the sandwich panels. The basic idea of the proposed project concerns the use of conductive patterns (screen printing, inkjet printing, etc.), micropatch antennas, electronic components, etc. on the walls of the honeycomb cells, or to build honeycombs integrating the same components into each cell wall (by additive manufacturing for example).

First of all, NIDASTIC project proposes to carry out technological developments on the materials themselves and the related processes, on inks and conductive fillers, on the integration of passive or active components (SMD surface mounted device type) and printed microcircuits. Secondly, functionalization of the structural composite panels will be demonstrated through scale model to address various challenges, in particular with a large frequency spectrum and targeted applications, and then by the design, the fabrication and the characterization of vehicles corresponding to each of the 3 targeted functions mentioned above: tunable radome panels, antenna panels, and control vector panels of surface mounted antennas (TRL> 5).

The restricted and very complementary partnership finds origin in the two partners of the PhD thesis (DCNS and IETR) and SERIBASE, a SME specialist in printed electronics. The strong relationship between the partners, their high technological levels and their motivation offer a very rich prospect of dissemination, transfer and use of the results, an increasing maturity level as well as numerous applications in military field, such as civil area. It is all the NIDASTIC challenge to evolve laboratory test pieces or numerical models to functionalized structural composite panels manufactured under an industrial setting. The commitment made by several expert SMEs in high technology niches (nanoparticle-based inks), not part of the consortium, to support the development of the research demonstrates the willingness of the partners to implement the NIDASTIC results at the end of the project.

The targeted applications of NIDASTIC mainly concern the microwave field (convergence point of the 3 partners) with the tunable radome panels, the devices embedded into the panel core to control surface mounted antennas or antenna arrays operating from the VUHF band (TETRA network) to the Ka band (collision avoidance radar), involving also geolocation devices, navigation devices, etc. Many of these applications are dual in nature: civil and military. Even they are less in the project to restrict the dispersion risks, the benefits of NIDASTIC out of the microwave field are also numerous and could constitute as many ways to diversify the potential markets for the industrial partners and in particular for the SERIBASE SME.