Passive RF Electronics For High Power Payloads

The overall aim of this project is to address one of most critical technological challenges encountered in spaceborne systems, namely the power handling capabilities of passive RF components (with emphasis on RF-filters) without compromising electrical performance, cost, or volume amp; mass budget.

Power handling is typically limited by the multipactor effect, a resonant interaction between the high-power RF field and an electron cloud thatcan lead to an electron avalanche effect. Multipactor is presently emerging as a key technological bottleneck in the development of high power RF payloads, posing severe delays, costs, risks and technical limitations to integrators. The core technological proposition we bring to fore is to fill the void in RF-components liable to power handling with synthetic aerogel networks to prevent the propagation and formation of an electron cloud and the onset of multipactor.