EuMC Plenary Session Details

Jean-Pierre Raskin, Louvain School of Engineering (EPL), Belgium

“Information Communication Technology for the best and the worst”

Abstract

Electronics is increasingly introduced in our society and ICT contributes extensively to this trend. Although this could enable positive effects both on our society and our environment through optimization and monitoring, the massive deployment of ICT comes together with an undeniable environmental burden which is often overlooked.

In the talk, we will begin by questioning the vision of progress shared by our societies. We will lift the veil on the invisibles of the digital world. It shows that the exponential trends such as Moore’s law or Cooper’s law will very unlikely lead to an absolute decrease of greenhouse gas emission and a reduction of our appetite for a wide variety of minerals if sobriety is not considered together with efficiency improvements.

Faced with the societal challenges of today and tomorrow, teaching and disciplinary research must reinvent themselves. Based on the assessed impacts of ICT, we will question the merits of certain technological choices made in the name of the transition. A holistic, transdisciplinary and pragmatic approach must be put in place in order to think, design and innovate within the constraints of our ecosystem limits. Concrete examples of current research will be shared, such as a critical look at the deployment of connected objects, the eco-design of sensors, a reflection on the pursuit of Moore's law and its environmental consequences, and the strategies to minimize e-waste.

Jean-Pierre Raskin received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied sciences from Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, in 1994 and 1997, respectively. In 1998, he joined the EECS Department of The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, for a post-doc of two years. In 2000, he joined the Microwave Laboratory of UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, as Associate Professor, and he has been a Full Professor since 2007. From September 2009 to September 2010, he was visiting professor at Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. His research interests are the modeling, wideband characterization and fabrication of advanced SOI MOSFETs as well as micro and nanofabrication of MEMS / NEMS sensors and actuators, including the extraction of intrinsic material properties at nanometer scale. He has been IEEE Fellow since 2014. He received the Médaille BLONDEL 2015, the SOI Consortium Award 2016, the European SEMI Award 2017, the Médaille AMPERE 2019, the Georges Vanderlinden Prize 2021 and the IET Achievement Medal in Electronics 2022, in recognition in his vision and pioneering work for RF SOI. He is author or co-author of more than 350 scientific journal articles. He has been managing a Chair in eco-innovation at CEA-Leti since January 2024.

David R. Smith, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Duke University, USA

“Ultra-Large Metasurface Apertures for Next Generation Communications, Sensing and Imaging”

Abstract

Metasurfaces are a modern technology for the design and implementation of both static as well as dynamically reconfigurable aperture antennas. In particular, beam-steering metasurfaces scale extremely well with aperture size in terms of cost, complexity, power consumption, and many other key metrics and can thus address applications where aperture size is critical, such as space-based systems for earth observation or situational awareness. In this talk, we discuss the basic design features of both waveguide-fed and reflectarray type metasurfaces, including the essential tradeoffs and comparisons with conventional beam-steering technologies.

Dr. David R. Smith is currently the James B. Duke Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Duke University. He is also Director of the Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics at Duke and holds the positions of Adjunct Associate Professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, San Diego, and Visiting Professor of Physics at Imperial College, London. Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in 1994 in Physics from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Smith's research interests include the theory, simulation and characterization of unique electromagnetic structures, including photonic crystals and metamaterials.

Smith is best known for his theoretical and experimental work on electromagnetic metamaterials. and has been at the forefront in the development of numerical methods to design and characterize metamaterials, and has also provided many of the key experiments that have helped to illustrate the potential that metamaterials offer. Smith and his colleagues at UCSD demonstrated the first left-handed (or negative index) metamaterial at microwave frequencies in 2000 followed up with a second experiment confirming one of Veselago's key conjectures: the 'reversal' of Snell's law. These two papers--the first published in Physical Review Letters and the second in Science--generated enormous interest throughout the community in the possibility of metamaterials to extend and augment the properties of conventional materials.

Since those first metamaterial experiments, Smith has continued to study the fundamentals and potential applications of negative index media and metamaterials. In 2004, Smith began studying the potential of metamaterials as a means to produce novel gradient index media. By varying the index-of-refraction throughout a material, an entire class of optical elements (such as lenses) can be formed. Smith showed that metamaterials could access a much larger range of design space, since both the magnetic and the electric properties could be graded independently. Smith and colleagues demonstrated several versions of gradient index optics, an activity that continues in his lab today. The introduction of controlled spatial gradients in the electromagnetic properties of a metamaterial flows naturally into the broad concept of transformation optics - a new electromagnetic design approach proposed by Sir John Pendry in 2006. To illustrate of the novelty of this design approach, Pendry, Schurig and Smith suggested in 2006 that an 'invisibility cloak' could be realized by a metamaterial implementation of a transformation optical design. Later that same year, Smith's group at Duke University reported the demonstration of a transformation optical designed 'invisibility cloak' at microwave frequencies. The concept of transformation optics has since attracted the attention of the scientific community, and is now a rapidly emerging sub-discipline in the field.

EuMC Closing

Didier Le Boulc’h, VP strategy and telecom solution – Thales Fellow at Thales Alenia Space

"The unprecedented wave of change in Satellite communication"

The field of communication satellites does not escape from a huge wave of change, quite close to a tsunami:

- the successful arrival on broadband services of new verticalised actors in Low Earth Orbit such as Starlink constellation from Space X

- the evolutions in usage through the success of terrestrial streaming platforms challenging the Direct to Home broadcast from GEOs

- the fast progress of digitization and virtualisation

- the convergence with terrestrial standards coming from Mobile World ( 3GPP standards ), combined with the increased interest from terrestrial telecom operators to expand their network through satellite

- the necessity of flexibility leading to new architectures and technologies

- and finally an increased sensitivity to sustainability and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) reduction are key factors that are deeply changing the satcom ecosystem.

The commercial space sector used to be somewhat conservative ( as there is no easy repair in orbit… ) it is now heading a “never seen before” pace of innovation. On going heavy developments enable to face those challenges. Satellites use more and more digital and even optical technologies, microwave technologies however remain essential to Satcom industry as users are equipped with equipment’s communicating in RF band, so satellite receive and transmit front ends are radiofrequency and their performance remain a key differentiator.

Didier Le Boulc’h Graduated from ISAe ( Sup’ Aero ) in 89, his engineering background is mainly in the field of telecom and Space. He started his carreer in 1989 in French MOD where he worked on electronic warfare systems, furtivity and milsatcom. He launched the design of Syracuse 3 milsatcom program. He joined CNES in 1999, as Head of Telecom R&D Programs. In 2005, he joined Thales Alenia Space and held different positions as head of System Engineering, as JV R&D Director prior to being named at his current position. He contributed to accelerate the electrification of the GEO product Lines, and to the massive digitisation of the payloads, enabling Thales Alenia Space be at the forefront of Broadband satellites ( VHTS) and worldwide leader in 2022 of Software Defined Satellites. Since 2016, he is driving his team to integrate communication satellites in the 3GPP ecosystem , which successfully concluded in 2022 with the 5G release 17, fully compatible with GEO and NGSO satellites. He is well known in Space domain in industry as well as in Space Agencies . as he used to represent France in Joint Communication Board for ESA. His personal motivation is to find the best way to satisfy the “market pull” needs from end customers and the quickly evolving technological capabilities of space industry to develop new competitive services.

Esteban Menargues, SWISSto12

"SWISSto12’s Additive Manufacturing: from early days to 3D printed-based satellite payloads"

Abstract

SWISSto12 is a leading manufacturer of advanced satellite RF products, payloads and systems, including HummingSat. The company’s RF products benefit from unique and patented Additive Manufacturing (AM, 3D printing) technologies and associated RF product designs that deliver lightweight, compact, highly performing, and competitive functionality. The talk will review the journey of SWISSto12’s AM from the first works using metallized plastic to the most recent developments in HummingSat – a journey fueled by innovation and passion by RF engineering.

Esteban Menargues was born in Alicante, Spain, in February 1986. He received the degree in electrical engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain, in 2011. From 2011 to 2017, he was an RF Engineer with Aurora Software and Testing (now part of Dassault Systemes) in Valencia, in Universidad Pública de Navarra and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Esteban started to work with SWISSto12 in 2015, while at EPFL. In 2017, he joined SWISSto12 as part of the staff of the company. During his journey at SWISSto12, Esteban has led or contributed to more than 100 different RF designs including waveguide components, antennas and phased arrays for application such as Space, Ground Communications or Surveillance. Esteban is author of 15 patents related to designs for 3D printing.