DTU-ESA coordinated antenna laboratory performance upgrade

The objective is to upgrade the accuracy and frequency of operation of the DTUESA Facility, maintaining the complementarity with the internal ESA facilities within the frequency range 400MHz 60GHz.  

The DTU-ESA Facility complements the ESTEC test facilities in supplying ESA with high-accuracy (~0.001 db) antenna calibration services. In recent years, the DTU-ESA Facility has contributed to ESA missions such as SMOS, SENTINEL-1 and Galileo, and provided its assistance and expertise for the new ESTEC test facilities. There is a need to develop the antenna test capability which entails all steps of facility operation, in particular the following aspects will be dealt with microwave and data acquisition hardware/software, alignment tools, probe system. The main taks of this activity will be: Development of measurement procedures. Installation and verification. Extensive validation campaing with the DTU-ESA validation standard antennas. Probe testing. The establishment of accurate uncertainty estimates. With the new system in place, the DTU-ESA Facility will be able to fully complement ESA?s internal antenna measurement facilities at ESTEC for the frequency range 400MHz 60GHz.