SPECIAL SESSION #09
From Semiconductors to Systems: Advanced RF Circuits and Platform Integration for Space Defense Markets
ORGANIZED BY
Alessandro Fonte
Alessandro Fonte
SIAE Microelettronica
Luigi Boccia
Luigi Boccia
University of Calabria, Italy
SPECIAL SESSION DESCRIPTION
This special session provides a comprehensive overview of semiconductor technologies, high-frequency circuits, and system-level integration strategies critical for future space missions within the Defense sector. As operational frequencies can grow up to 100 GHz - for Earth observation, secure satellite communications, and Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) - choosing the right semiconductor platform serves as a strategic pillar to ensure high-performance modules and technological sovereignty. System requirements and how they can impact on the technological choices among advanced silicon (i.e. SiGe, SOI), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Nitride (GaN), and Indium Phosphide (InP) will be critically analyzed. The session will explore the entire value chain, from raw chip-level design to actual deployment within modern small-satellite architectures and micro-constellations. Discussions will delve into highly energy-efficient microwave and millimeter-wave integrated circuits (RFICs and MMICs), Low-Noise Front-Ends, and High-Power Modules. Particular emphasis will be placed on radiation-hardened design methodologies, extreme thermal management for miniaturized platforms, and advanced power delivery architectures required by high-consumption RF payloads. Furthermore, to address the needs of the evolving Defense market, this session expands into orbital logistics, rapid in-orbit demonstration (IOD) platforms, and hostile environment survivability. It also covers secure ground-segment operations for high-throughput data downlinks and advanced end-to-end signal processing algorithms. By exploring these highly interconnected, cross-disciplinary domains, the session welcomes technical contributions from academia, established aerospace primes, New Space integrators, hardware subsystems developers, and payload processing software experts. The ultimate goal is to foster a highly synergistic meeting point between academia, research centers, and the international defense industry that will drive the next generation of spaceborne defense systems.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
Alessandro Fonte received the M.S. degree in Electronic Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Information Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Since 2011, he has been with the SIAE MICROELETTRONICA, Milan, Italy. He is in charge of the Millimeter Wave Technology Laboratory and follows the developments of the activities in MMICs, RFICs and System in Package (SiP) design, from 10 GHz up to D-band (130-175GHz). He is Workpackage and Task leader in several European Projects in the Horizon Europe framework (Chips-JU), in which SIAE is one of the corporate partners. He is also the project manager of some projects with the European Space Agency (ESA) in which SIAE is the PRIME contractor. In the IPCEI program, He is responsible for the activities related to the advanced integration technologies in the SIAE project portfolio. He has authored several papers in peer-reviewed international journals and conference proceedings and two book chapters.
Luigi Boccia (Senior Member, IEEE) was heart born in Lungro, Italy, in 1975. He received the degree in information technology engineering from the University of Calabria, Rende, Italy, in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics engineering from the University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy, in 2003. Since 2021 he has been an Associate Professor of electromagnetics at the Millimeter-wave Antennas and Integrated Circuits Laboratory (MAIC-LAB) of the University of Calabria. His current research interests include antennas for telecommunications, radar and Earth observation applications, monolithically integrated RF circuits for phased array applications and RF system integration technologies. He was a recipient of the 2022 Best paper Prize from the IEEE Journal of Microwaves. He serves as an associated editor of the “International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies” (Cambridge University Press) and of “IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters”. He also was the co-Editor of the book entitled Space Antenna Handbook (Wiley, 2012).
