Electromagnetic interference can distort signals, preventing your satellite from delivering its full potential.
The Electromagnetics Suite will be operated, maintained and developed by a team of test engineers with a range of experience covering EMC testing, near-field antenna measurements and working with space hardware. The team are supported by quality management practices to ensure that equipment is calibrated, processes are followed, and the quality of measurements and results are maintained.
Located in the National Satellite Test Facility, the Electromagnetics Suite is available alongside a complete suite of large-scale testing capabilities.
EMC and antenna measurement testing
We will have a large (18m x 18m x 14m high) shielded, anechoic chamber designed to accommodate satellites and payloads up to 7,000kg. This will provide the electrically isolated environment in which EMC tests can be carried out safely and accurately.
The chamber will house a large planar near-field antenna measurement system. Our team will help you evaluate the outputs from your satellite and validate its antenna performance over a wide frequency range using a near-field planar scanner – ideal for measuring the performance of antennas used for communications between the satellite and ground stations.
This chamber will provide a clean environment, both physically and electrically, so that a satellite's electromagnetic characteristics can be accurately measured:
- Shielded and isolated
- Powered from filtered, isolating transformers
- Connected to a separate clean earth that can be disconnected from the general protective earth of the building
- Filtered data connections
- Anechoic chamber walls and ceilings will be lined with absorbing material, pyramidal foam tiles, to prevent reflections of electromagnetic signals. We will have absorber tiles that we can use to cover part of the floor of the chamber too.
- ISO8 clean room
- Electrostatic discharge controlled
Antenna Measurement
- A vertical planar near-field scanner, 12m by 12m, suitable for measuring higher gain antennas up to several metres in diameter
- Four axis system including active Z-axis control to achieve the required X-Y scan planarity and probe rotation to include cross-polarisation measurements
- Probes and radio frequency hardware for measurement frequencies from 500 MHz to 75 GHz in linear or circular polarisations
- Commercial software to acquire the near-field data, convert to the far-field, extract beam parameters and produce plots, etc.
- Includes a payload test suite for antenna equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP), saturated flux density (SFD), gain to noise temperature (G/T), etc. measurements
Antenna Measurement Standards
The antenna measurement system will be validated using the industry standard validation antenna standards (VAST) antennas developed by Denmark Technical University and the European Space Agency (ESA). These will give us an 18-term error budget for the system with a goal of ±0.2 dB on peak gain measurements and 0.01° on pointing determination.
We are developing our own versions of the VAST that will be characterised during the system validation. These will be used for regular re-validation and training.
EMC testing
Our EMC test capabilities will include:
- Conducted Susceptibility
- Conducted Emissions
- E-Field Radiated Susceptibility (up to 40 GHz)
- E-Field Radiated Emissions (up to 40 GHz)
- ESD and Transient testing
EMC Test Standards
We will usually follow the EMC Test standard ECSS-E-ST-20-07C for the tests listed above, with the ability to tailor tests to customer requirements or optionally follow the relevant sections of MIL-STD-461F.
Other test support
With our shielded anechoic chamber and our high-power wall and associated safety systems we can support customer-led satellite auto-compatibility and passive intermodulation (PIM) testing.
Our four high-power wall modules will provide a total reconfigurable area of 2.4m x 2.4m with a maximum power handling capability of 3 W/cm2. We will look for hot-spots using a thermal camera and, if required, operate the facility with a reduced oxygen content to prevent combustion of absorber material.
The facility includes a separate 78m2 shielded room adjacent to the main chamber, dedicated to customer electrical ground support equipment (EGSE). This has feedthrough panels and tunnels for cabling to the test item and includes single and three-phase power supplies.
How to access our facilities
As the UK's national space laboratory, we occupy a unique and independent position between industry, academia and government. Our facilities are open to everyone on a commercial basis, whether based in the UK or internationally.
To enquire about use of our test facilities please:
For further information, please read the NSTF frequently asked question page.
Images:
Image 1 - EMC facility in the NSTF. Credit: STFC RAL Space.
