Description
Priority 2 activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one delegation.
The objective of the activity is to develop and demonstrate performance at demonstrator level of new manufacturing techniques applied to a large focal array.
Targeted Improvements:
Lower cost (25%) , mass saving (20%), shorter integration time and simpler assembly, reduced volume.
Description:
Additive manufacturing technologies allow manufacture in one piece geometries that are not possible with conventional machining. This possibility is very attractive for space hardware, in particular in the case of a large focal arrays, in which the assembly procedure would be simplified and the compactness could be significantly improved.
A major driver for the cost and production is the large number of different beamforming network (BFN) components that are needed (couplers, dividers, combiners, twists, etc.). Currently the components of feed arrays and BFNs are manufactured individually by using traditional manufacturing techniques before they are assembled. This approach leads to a large number of interfaces which poses significant design limitations and in some cases leads to unacceptable performance degradation.
With additive manufacturing techniques the above limitation could be overcome as it allows the elimination of the interfaces, novel compact designs and minimization of assembly errors. In addition, radiating elements and BFNs could be manufacturing in one single piece. Promising results have already been obtained in the frame of another ESA activities where RF passive components have been manufactured.
Large dimensions in the order of 500x300x300 mm are now possible for Aluminum parts, however main challenges are the required surface accuracy, roughness and to achieve the surface treatment.
Hence this activity shall investigate, for the typical telecommunication frequency bands (starting from L-Band and up to C-Band), the processes and capabilities of novel additive manufacturing techniques for building focal arrays including BFNs.
The most promising frequency band shall be selected and the novel design concepts validated on a demonstrator hardware to fully evaluate the mass, performance and cost savings.
Major positive impacts are expected on compactness, manufacturing cost and lead-time thanks to a decrease in the number of parts and associated flanges. In addition, PIM performance could also be improved.
The study logic shall follow the following steps
- Review of state of art manufacturing and focal arrays
- Trade-offs and development of novel concepts.
- Design and Manufacturing.
- Testing.