ESA-VSC Laboratory
High Power RF Laboratory
The ESA-VSC European High Power RF Space Laboratory is specialized in RF breakdown phenomena (Multipactor, Corona and Power Handling) and Passive Inter-modulation (PIM).
Have a look at the
Services provided by the laboratory
The European High Power RF Space Laboratory is specialized in providing the following researching and testing services:
The key
Facilities
The laboratory, located in the Mediterranean city of Valencia (Spain), relies on three class 10,000 (ISO 7 category) clean rooms with a total working area of 300 sqm. The facility includes eight vacuum chambers and several dedicated state-of-art high power RF tests beds operating over a wide frequency range from 10 MHz up to 39,5 GHz.
And an important
Added value
An additional asset of the laboratory is the know-how of the team as well as the diagnostic capabilities which are essential in mitigating these destructive phenomena.
Being a laboratory of the ESA’s Radio Frequency Payloads and Technology Division, the confidentiality of the results is fully guaranteed.
Get to know
Facilities
The laboratory has three 10,000 class (ISO 7) clean rooms certified and ready to test and validate flight models:
Vacuum chambers
8 vacuum chambers are available for researching and testing satellite telecommunication components.
Pressure levels up to 1·10-7 mbar are reached in a controlled way.
Depending on the vacuum chamber, temperatures from -80ºC to +150ºC are provided at the thermal base plate.
Anechoic chamber
A contact-less anechoic chamber is available for researching and testing the passive intermodulation effects. The absorber material is qualified for clean rooms and can handle high power RF signals from a few MHz to 40 GHz. This chamber includes a 700x500x500 mm thermally isolated RF transparent box for testing of radiating elements (-40ºC to +120ºC).
RF equipment
The European High Power RF Space Laboratory includes a large number of state-of-the-art RF equipment for RF testing including spectrum analysers, network analysers, signal generators, high power RF amplifiers, etc.
Multicarrier
This unique multicarrier system delivers ten carriers of 400 watts each in Ku-band into a high power OMUX which combines the signals with accurate control of phase and RF power.
The water-cooled system includes dedicated control software capable to set and monitor variables such as frequency, power, phase and modulation scheme. The system has been designed for testing breakdown effects in RF signals under multi-carrier scenarios
Technical contact
David Raboso García-Baquero
Manager of the Laboratory
Tel: +34 96 2051404
Fax: +34 96 2051402
Email: david.raboso@esa.int
Technical contact
Vicente E. Boria Esbert
Deputy Manager of the Laboratory
Tel: +34 96 387 9718
Fax: +34 96 205 1402
Email: vicente.boria@val-space.com
Technical and Administrative contact
David Argilés Ortiz
Managing Director of VSC
Tel: +34 96 2051405
Fax: +34 96 2051402
Email: david.argiles@val-space.com
VAL SPACE CONSORTIUM IS COMPOSED OF:
