NEW PIM TEST FACILITY AT I.N.T.

A
Cristina Palacios (1), Manuela Garca(1), Rafael Caballero(2), Pedro Tejedor(3),Juan Luis Cano(3) Distcom Antenas, S.L. C/ Cayetano Garca 24, Torrelodones 28250 Madrid (E) Email: dcaxtina@casa-de.es
(2) (1)

Construcciones Aeronuticas S.A. (CASA)-Divisin Espacio Avd. Aragn 404, Madrid 28022 (E) Email:Rafael.Caballero@casa-de.es
(3)

Instituto Nacional de Tcnica Aeroespacial (INTA) Ctra. Torrejn-Ajalvir p.k.4, Madrid 28850 (E) e-mail: tejedorcp@inta.es

INTRODUCTION The increasing in the number of channels and transmitted power of space-borne microwave systems have made arise the problem of non-linear effects in passive circuitry. These non-linearities generate Passive Intermodulation products (PIM) that can fall on the receive bands of the satellite and degradate, or even disable, one or several communication channels. Therefore, appropriate PIM testing facilities are required, where space-borne systems must be subjected to PIM tests in order to guarantee their PIM-free behaviour. Thanks to a closed collaboration between EADS Casa Espacio, with support of Distcom Antenas, and I.N.T.A, it has been defined, designed, implemented, calibrated and brought into operation a new PIM test facility, which is featured in this paper. This facility is intended to perform a variety of PIM tests, according to the test requirements on: The device: Radiation tests for antennas (up to 1.2 meter-diammeter) or confined signal work-bench for elements such as diplexers, OMTs. The temperature range: ambient temperature (large size antennas at system level) or thermal cyclings at ambient pressure (medium size antennas and feeders) ranging from 170 C up to +180C The facility consists of three parts: the anechoic chamber, the test sets and the thermal chamber with the associated temperature generation and control system. The test sets consist of a number of equipment and microwave elements that form the transmission and reception paths of the set up. To date it is possible to perform measurements at X-band (WR112 wave-guide hardware) and Ku-band (WR75 wave-guide hardware). FACILITY DESCRIPTION Anechoic Chamber An anechoic chamber for PIM testing has two major specific requirements when compared to a chamber for radiation pattern measurements. Firstly, it is imperative that the chamber itself does not contribute to the measured PIM level. Secondly, as PIM testes are performed at high power levels, certain areas of the chamber must be able to withstand high power densities. In the PIM chamber built at I.N.T.A any metallic parts have been avoided by making the structure and walls out of wood, assemble with glue or plastic screws. The chamber has the shape of a rectangular box, with external dimensions o4 x 5 x 3 (h) meters. All the walls, including the floor and ceiling, have been covered with pyramidal microwave absorber. In the frontal wall, upon which the antenna beam is directed during the test, the absorber is of a high power dissipation variety, with honeycomb structure. This absorber is cooled by the air flow provided by four fans on the rear wall of the

chamber. The floor of the chamber consists of a platform of wood, placed over the absorber panels. This platform provides a walking surface for personnel, as well as a surface where the thermal box is placed. Certainly, the platform distorts the radiation pattern of the antenna, but for PIM testing it is considered to be acceptable. Three ways into the chamber have been provided. For personnel access there is a door, on a lateral wall. In addition, a large section of this wall can be removed and put apart, allowing the introduction of big elements, as the thermal box or the antenna reflectors. Finally, the front wall, where the high-power absorbing panels are placed, can be completely removed, allowing modifications of the chamber, or the re-using of the expensive absorbing surface for other applications. As the chamber has not any metal shielding, great care has been put in avoiding radiation hazard. First of all, the working zone is near to the real wall, where the radiation of the antenna will be the least. Furthermore, to guarantee that the radiation level is lower than the minimum recommended, the isolation of the walls (including the absorber ) was measured, being greater than 40 dB at any frequency above 2 GHz. The radiation level was systematically checked around the chamber in order to detect radiation leakage. It was found that the cause of some radiation leakage spots was the misalignment of absorbing panels, that were remounted. It must be noted that the power density level will vary from test to test, depending on the frequency band, the antenna directivity and the power per carrier applied. As an example, for a 7 GHz reflector of Gain=30 dBi transmitting two 100-watts carriers, the power density level will be below the recommended values at any point out of the chamber. The PIM performance of the chamber is verified, in combination with the setup, prior to any test. At X-Band, with two 100-watts carriers, no PIM is observed with a noise floor in the reception system of 140 dBm.

Figure 1. PIM chamber with the front wall (left) and access lateral wall (right) separated Thermal Chamber

The thermal chamber is rectangular shaped. Its dimensions are (on average) 2300x1600x1400 mm. (lxhxw). It is made of thermal isolating panels, whose range of temperatures covers the thermal range from 170 C up to +180C. These panels have a thickness of 50 mm. The inside is covered with Kapton film and the joints are properly sealed to avoid any possible N2 leakage. In order to ease the placement of the antenna inside the thermal chamber and the external connections of the set up, one panel is removable. The thermal chamber presents three apertures: Aperture given access to the TX and RX ports. Aperture given access to the temperature controlling equipment. Purge tube (to purge N2 from chamber). Different external thermal elements are used to increase or decrease the temperature inside the thermal chamber depending on the characteristics of the device under test (size, temperature range, etc.). Nowadays, the minimum temperature is reached injecting liquid nitrogen into the chamber and the maximum temperature using heaters placed on the DUT and an special device injecting hot dry air. In order to control the temperatures on the DUT throughout the measurement, several thermal couples are used and monitored. A typical hot-cold complete cycling (with maximum temperature range) takes around seven hours.

Figure 2 Thermal Chamber: Detail of the incide housing for an antena under test (left) and picture of the complete closing of the chamber previous to the termal PIM testing performance.

PIM TEST SET-UP DESCRIPTION X-Band set-up The X-Band PIM Test set-up is described in Figure 3 and uses as wave-guide hardware WR112. It presents two paths: transmission and reception path.

Figure 3. PIM TEST Set-up for X-Band

The Transmission path has two synthesisers working as signal sources. Each output feeds a TWT amplifier, to provide the following section of TX path the desirable power. Both high-power signals are connected to a magic T', in order to combine them. The signal obtained flows through a chain of filters whose purpose is to confine the TX spectrum (2 bandpass filters) and to avoid the presence of any spurious signals within the RX band produced inside TWT amplifiers (low band-pass filter). In the TX path it also exists a directional coupler that lets extract a sample of the signal level arriving to the TX port of the feeder. The sample signal is connected to a 3dB coupler which allows to control it with two different instruments. In this way, a continuous monitoring throughout the test is guaranteed. The TWT Power Amplifier model is a 400SC-X CW (ETM Company). It provides 400W output power over the bandwidth of 2.500 to 8000 GHz. It has a gain of 56dB at rated output power allowing gain adjustment from 0 to 35 dB. The transmission band-pass filters work in the bandwidth of 7.250-7.650GHz. They have been designed and manufactured by EADS CASA. They are corrugated wave-guide filters with transmission losses of 0.5dB and attenuation losses of 55dB. The maximum power per carrier is about 100W due to the losses of the transmission path. The Reception path consists of a chain which starts with two band-pass filters whose mask is accommodated to the RX band. The function of these filters is to attenuate as far as possible the part of the spectrum within the TX band. In order to avoid external interference, this unit has to be properly shielded. Just after the filters, there are two Low Noise amplifiers that reduce the Noise Figure of the receptor and help in the achievement of a proper noise floor in the spectrum analyser. They also amplify the received signal to be able to detect the presence of PIM products. The reception band-pass filters work in the bandwidth of 7.900-8.400GHz. They have been designed and manufactured by EADS CASA. They are stepped wave-guide filters with transmission losses of 0.7dB in the pass band and attenuation losses of 50dB in the rejection band. The noise floor of the system is about 140dBm. It makes possible the detection of a signal below 130dBm with a C/N of 10dB. The test set-up monitoring is carried out with two different instruments: The bolometer or power sensor: It monitors the output power from the TWT amplifiers through the sample port. Spectrum analysers: One monitors both TX carriers introduced to the feeder, to allow the detection of power changes in the synthesisers or in the TWT amplifiers. This guarantees that the signal level introduced to the antenna is the required. A second one is used to show the RX signal. It has to be tuned to the expected frequency, and its noise floor has to make possible the measurement of signals below 125dBm. The data from this device is recorded on a X-Y recorder and plotted. Ku-Band set-up The configuration of the Ku-Band set-up is similar to the X-Band one, using the same measurement instruments. The wave-guide hardware is WR75. In the Transmission path, the two synthesised carriers are amplified with TWT amplifiers and filtered with bandpass commercial filters. The amplifiers cover the band 8-12.4 GHz and deliver a maximum power of 335 watts. The band-pass of the filters is 11.5-12.5 GHz. The carriers are combined with a magic-T or, for some specific frequencies with low-PIM diplexers.

The Reception path provides filtering of the signal by means of a band-reject filter followed by a high-pass one. The band-reject filter reduces the level of the transmission carriers and consists of a 3-dB hybrid coupler with a pair (bandpass filter+power load) connected to each coupled port. The passband of the high-pass filter starts at 13 GHz, the minimum PIM frequency that this set-up can measure. Next, the signal is amplified with one or two LNAs covering the band of 12.0-18.0 GHz. PIM TEST BACKGROUND The tests performed at INTA premises up to date correspond to the thermal PIM testing of single-offset reflectors antenna (whole assembly). The main features of these measurements are: Device under Test: Single offset reflector antenna (600mm-diameter and F/D=1) feed by a feeder consisting in a corrugated horn plus a septum polariser with two ports (TX and RX respectively). Frequency range (X-Band): o Transmission Band: 7.250-7.750 GHz. o Reception Band: 7.900-8.400 GHz. Maximum power per carrier (two carriers): 100W Order of IM product: 5th, 7th and 9th Noise Floor: <-140dBm (see Figure 4) PIM Level Specification: < -125dBm Temperature range: o -170 C to 100 C at the reflector o -125 C to 180 C at the feeder These tests have been performed using the test set-up defined in Figure 3.

Figure 4. -Noise floor of the RX path

CONCLUSION The new I.N.T.A PIM test facility has been proved as a suitable facility to test a whole antenna assembly under very demanding temperature conditions, providing stable and repetitive results. Hence, it can be regarded as a reference chamber to perform this type of measurements. An additional special characteristic of this facility is its versatility, that is, the capacity for making possible an array of different testing configurations (depending on the PIM testing requirements). It also encourages EADS CASA ESPACIO and I.N.T.A people for future collaborations seeking for similar or better satisfactory results.