Giovanni of European Space Agency, Netherlands

The objective of the two IEEE Distinguished Lectures consists in presenting the state of the art and the on-going developments in Multi-Beam Antennas (MBAs) and Beam-Forming Networks (BFNs). They find application in several fields including communications, remote sensing (e.g. radars, radiometers, etc.), electronic surveillance and defense systems, science (e.g. multibeam radio telescopes), RF navigation systems, etc. They may be installed on board satellites, airplanes, trains, buses, buildings, cars etc. MBAs and BFNs are becoming also fundamental elements in emerging MIMO and 5G communications. The BFN plays an essential role in any antenna system relaying on a set of radiating elements to generate a beam. The lectures cover both theoretical and practical aspects for the following topics:

•           Overview of system applications

•           Multibeam Antenna Architectures (based on Reflectors, Arrays, Lenses)

•           Beamforming Networks

Analogue BFNs (Corporate, Blass, Nolen, Butler matrices, Digital BFNs)

•           Overview of some Operational Multibeam Antennas/BFNs

•           On-going European Developments

•           Current Design and Technological Challenges

Biography:

Giovanni Toso (Fellow IEEE) received the Laurea Degree (cum laude), the Ph.D. and the Post Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1992, 1995 and 1999, respectively. Since 2000, he has been with the Antenna and Submillimeter Waves Section, European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. He has been initiating several research and development activities on satellite antennas based on arrays, reflectarrays, discrete lenses, and reflectors. Dr. Toso received, together with Prof. A. Skrivervik, the European School of Antennas (ESoA) Best Teacher Award in 2018. In 2014, he has been the Guest Editor, together with Dr. R. Mailloux, of the Special Issue on “Innovative Phased Array Antennas Based on Non-Regular Lattices and Overlapped Subarrays” published in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and, for the same society, has been an Associate Editor from 2013 to 2016. Since 2010, together with Dr. P. Angeletti, he has been instructing short courses on Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks during international conferences that have been attended by more than 1200 participants. Together with Dr. P. Angeletti, he is the organizer of the EurAAP-ESoA Course on Active Antennas. Together with Dr. E. Gandini, he is also the organizer of the EurAAP-ESoA Course on Satellite Antennas. From January 2023 Giovanni Toso has been elevated to IEEE Fellow grade for contributions to multibeam antenna developments for satellite applications. G. Toso is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.

Email:

Address:European Space Agency, , Noordwijk, Netherlands

Peiro of European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC)

Biography:

Piero Angeletti received the Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Ancona (Italy) in 1996, and the PhD in Electromagnetism from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) in 2010.

Since 2004 he is with the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency (ESA), in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). He has been recently appointed Head of the Secure Connectivity Space Segment Office, with responsibility of the ESA design, development and deployment activities related to IRIS2 (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) multi-constellations space segment.

His 25+ years experience in RF systems engineering and technical management encompasses conceptual/architectural design, trade-offs, detailed design, production, integration and testing of satellite payloads and active antenna systems for commercial/military telecommunications and navigation (spanning all the operating bands and set of applications) as well as for multifunction RADARs and electronic counter measure systems. This has been acquired through direct industrial experience in several aerospace companies (i.e. Agusta-Westland, Thales Alenia Space, Boeing, Elettronica, Airbus Defence & Space) in different job roles (research and development, innovation, production, procurement, integration) and matured in the privileged position at the ESA, at the cross-road of all major European developments.

In particular he oversaw ESA Research and Development activities related to flexible satellite payloads, active antennas, RF front-ends and on-board digital processors.

Together with Dr. G. Toso he is the co-organizer of the EurAP-ESoA course on Active Antennas (2021, 2023) and instructor of the short courses on Multibeam Antennas and Beamforming Networks during international conferences (which has been attended by more than 1200 participants).

In 2022 he received the S. A. Schelkunoff award by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society for the best IEEE TAP paper published in 2021, “Traffic Balancing Multibeam Antennas for Communication Satellites”.

Piero is an IEEE active member of both the AP, MTT and AES Societies contributing to the various events/conferences with tutorials, invited/keynote speeches, papers, special sessions and workshops’ organization. He has been appointed 2023 IEEE MTT-S and AP-S Inter-Society Distinguished Lecturer by the Inter-Society Committee of the IEEE MTT and AP societies.

Address:European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), , Noordwijk, Netherlands