Alter Technology in the EuMW2018

The European Microwave Week 2018 just started. The six days conferences and exhibitions began yesterday, Sunday, 23th September and will take place until Friday, the 28th, which will be the closing ceremony.

In this edition we have the presence of two of our experts in Microwaves, Aintzane Lujambio Genua and the newly incorporated, from the European Space Agency (ESA), Fernando Teberio.

During these days, workshops and conferences were presented, which will talk about filters and multiplexers are key building blocks in science, navigation, and earth observation and telecommunication applications. However, it is in the telecommunication systems where filter specifications are specially demanding due to accommodation issues, power handling, RF performance and cost among others. In the last years, telecommunication system requirements have evolved very fast due to the increase in traffic demand.

Congestion in lower (and traditional) frequency bands have forced the operators to move to high frequencies (Ka-, Q-, V) and they are already thinking about higher frequencies such as W-band.

However, the satellite resources (power, space) are limited and a good management of all of them will help the satellite operators to cover the traffic demand when and where is needed. This is forcing the satellite manufacturers to move to flexible architectures (active antennas, beam hopping, digital processors, etc.).

This new ecosystem where shorter lead times, lowers cost, additional flexibility, new payload architectures among others, are forcing the filter manufacturers to be highly innovative. Additionally, new market opportunities also comes with new players.

This workshop aims to present the state-of-the-art for microwave filter design and manufacturing, but also aims to create an adequate forum for the discussion regarding the current market situation and perspective.