THALES
Thales is one of the major world players in civilian & professional electronics with Over 77,000 employees with Global presence in 68 Countries, and 17.6 B€ Sales in 2022, Thales Research and Technology France (THALES ) located in Palaiseau, near Paris, is the main multidisciplinary research unit of the Thales Group. THALES is participating in the preparation of Thales industrial future in strategic R&D fields, with 1 Nobel Prize, 3 European Research Council projects and also 80 French or European on-going collaborative research projects, With 240 permanent staff and on-going 40 PhD students, And 4,000 m² of cleanrooms and 200 characterization & process main equipment. THALES is dedicated to mastering increasingly sophisticated technologies, particularly those related to detection, analysis, or decision-making, in order to design and develop critical information systems. These innovative solutions serve clients in various domains such as secure military communications, space systems, air traffic management, embedded electronics, large computer networks and administrations
THALES ALENIA SPACE
Thales Alenia Space (TAS), a Joint Venture between Thales and Leonardo, is a global space manufacturer with over 40 years of experience. They specialize in providing high-tech solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth Observation, environmental management, exploration, science, and orbital infrastructures. TAS is the go-to choice for governments, institutions, and businesses seeking satellite-based systems that enhance connectivity, enable global positioning, facilitate Earth observation, and optimize resource utilization across our planet and the solar system. TAS played a pivotal role in the Receiv’Air project (2019-2022), which aimed to revolutionize space-to-Earth wireless power transmission. This innovative project addressed the challenge of power loss in Solar Power Satellites due to atmospheric attenuation. Receiv’Air introduced a groundbreaking concept: utilizing an airborne receiver, like an airship, to capture high-frequency energy beams at high altitudes. TAS’s significant contribution involved developing technology for efficient energy reception, including a 200-meter diameter reception surface for a 300 MW station, achieving a power density of 10 kW/m² at around 100 GHz (what will be addressed in REMPOWER). Currently, TAS is leading the SOLARIS consortium, working on an ambitious solution for Europe: harnessing solar energy in orbit and transmitting it to Earth without weather or nighttime limitations. The SOLARIS initiative aims to make an informed decision by 2025 on the commercialization of space-based solar energy, beginning with a smallscale in-orbit demonstrator
UNIVERSITE’ DE BORDEAUX
Université de Bordeaux (UBx) and Bordeaux INP are, together with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), host institutions of the IMS laboratory, which develop research on integration from the material level to system level, from DC to few THz. UBx and INP have strong interest to space and rectenna technologies. In 2022, Bordeaux was naming the capital of Wireless power, and they hosted the Wireless Power Week in July 2022, the premier event on Wireless Power Transfert. INP is a founding member of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Academic Space Center (NAASC) and develops stratospheric balloons and CubeSat. The IMS lab has strong industrial partnerships with companies and institutions including Thales, Thales Alenia Space, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the French space agency (CNES) resulting is a relatively high number of patents (in average 0.2 per researcher per year), with a mean of 3.1 publications per researcher per year. IMS lab (UBx & INP) has co-supervised 35 PhD students with Thales, and has organized many conferences, workshops and international student competition with IMEC and UNIPG. The team from Bordeaux involved in the project has a long track record on rectenna or rectifying diode research (including 2 book chapter, and >100 journal and conference papers), and has been holding the record for the best 100GHz-class matched rectifier efficiency from 2015 to 2022 (90GHz, 38%), contributing at that time to the development of the sub-THz rectifier measurements efforts within the community.ndscape.
IMEC
At imec The Netherlands it is our mission to develop targeted innovations with real impact on people’s lives. Here, imec joins forces with research institutions, governments and businesses to leverage its world-leading R&D for high-impact projects in nano- and digital technology. The international IMEC organization boasts more than 5,000 expert scientists, a unique infrastructure that includes a 2.5-billion-euro 300mm semiconductor pilot line, and an ecosystem of more than 600 world-leading industry partners and a global academic network. In the Netherlands, IMEC-NL contributes to new micro-electronical and sensor technology solutions in the fields of health & vitality, photonics, energy & industry. IMEC-NL has conducted research in rectenna technology, inductive and mid-field wireless power transfer and in rectifier technology by contributing to several book chapters on these subjects and holds several patents.
UNIPG
The Department of Engineering of the University of Perugia (UNIPG) is an academic institution whose mission is the development of research and training of excellence in the field of mechanics, structures, energy, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The group involved in this project proposal is part of the High Electronics Laboratory Frequency (HFElab), a research laboratory focused on the development of radio frequency (RF) systems and circuits for space, sensor and consumer (IoT) applications. The various lines of research include the development of transceiver frontends for Cubesats, the development of mm-wave SoC radiometers, modeling and development of avalanche noise sources for integrated test equipment and calibration, the study of RF electronic circuits on non-conventional materials (cellulose, organic substrates, etc.), the design of micro/mm-wave integrated circuits in CMOS and SiGe BiCMOS technologies, RF system design and simulation, flexible rectennas up to mm-waves and wireless power technologies for both static and dynamic scenarios.
LGE
Luna Geber Engineering s.r.l. (LGE) inherited thirty-year standing experience in the development of RF and microwave systems for telecommunication and telemetry, fostering this heritage by incorporating the most advanced technological trends in IoT technologies (last generation electronic devices, protocols for IoT, adoption of eco-friendly solutions such as recyclable and compostable materials, energy harvesting and wireless power transfer). From the sensing and data mapping point of view, these sectors exhibit some analogies and some peculiarities. Starting from a technological background consisting of HW technologies (advanced low power sensing devices, use low-cost recyclable substrates, additive manufacturing, 3D printed packages, and so on) as well as SW technologies (LoRa, Sigfox, BLE, and so on), LGE is developing custom solutions for data acquisition and mapping in the referred scenarios. LGE has experience in developing extremely customized monitoring systems in the field of industry 4.0 and IoT solutions based on both off the shelf components and subsystems purposely developed. We have also already worked on condition and health monitoring of large industrial equipment. In these sectors we have applied the long university experience in electromagnetic modeling and development of contactless and wireless sensors.